The Roth Quad food court opened its doors on Monday to a crowd of eager students – the first patrons the dining hall has seen in the past year after being closed for renovations.
Students have new options to choose from including Wendy’s and Mama Leone’s Pizza, open from 11:30 AM to midnight, and Seawolf Subs and International Market, open from 11:30 am – 9:00 PM. The Pura Vida Coffeehouse will be open from 6:00 P.M. to midnight.
The building also has offices and two large classrooms, which will be home to the undergraduate college of science and society.
The university didn’t have just a dining hall in mind. They wanted students to have a new place to gather, in hopes of developing more of a sense of campus community at Stony Brook.
“I think all the residents of Roth Quad are about to get very very fat; the freshmen fifteen is definitely here,” said freshman Matthew Carnes.
Roth Food court was opened in 1966 and has served over 25 million meals to Stony Brook Students. Originally the building was designed to accommodate residential dining during fixed meal periods, according to the Roth renovations web site. These plans had students coming within two-hour blocks for 3 meals a day.
It was in 1992 that Roth changed over to declining balance, which is what we are used to today. Burger King also opened up in 1993 and was the first national franchise on a University campus.
But there was one problem; the kitchens in Roth were not designed for supporting preparation to order, so Roth Food Court was closed for the 2007-2008 academic year, along with part of the current semester.
According to the Roth food court website, “The food court has been designed for maximum efficiency and will accommodate anticipated new technology that will eventually allow students to pre-order meals on-line and from personal hand-held communication devices.”
It will also have wireless Internet.
The university hopes its proximity to the Academic Mall will help alleviate the overcrowding of the Student Activities Center that we have all seen in the last few months. They expect to serve 1 million customers per year.
