Beginning Nov. 7, the Starbucks in the Don Taft University Center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Robert Genser, Chartwells resident district manager, said that Starbucks will follow NSU’s undergraduate calendar, which means that it will close during holidays and winter break.
Moe Lauchert, freshman marine biology major, said he would not mind that the other venues were closed as long as the Don Taft UC was open and he could get something to eat from Starbucks.
“It would be a place to get away from everything,” said Lauchert.
Genser said he hopes students react positively to the change. Steven Bell, freshman psychology major, did.
“It is very convenient, especially for people [who live] on campus because the library’s not open,” he said.
Anthony Campenni, senior economics major and president of the undergraduate Student Government Association, said PAN-SGA, which is made up of the presidents and vice presidents of all the SGAs on campus, is responsible for the initiative.
“PAN-SGA said that there needed to be a place for students to be able to study all night on campus, especially for graduate students who are up late at night,” said Campenni.
However, Campenni said the change will be permanent only if students take advantage of it.
“If two months go by and there’s two students going in there, it’s not going to work,” he said.
Campenni also said that the change had to make sense economically. Starbucks employees and Public Safety will have to be paid to keep the building open and this would cost the university a lot of money, he said.
Brad Williams, Ed.D., dean of the Division of Student Affairs, said that after this semester’s final exams, student traffic will be reviewed to determine if the schedule is still viable.
“It kind of puts the ball in the students’ court,” he said. “If they say, ‘We really wanted this and we’re going to use it,’ that’s great,” he said.
Michele Zielinski, first-year marine biology graduate student, said that she would take advantage of the extension of hours and study in the Don Taft UC.
“I know they have extended hours during midterms and finals, but this would be perfect for other exams through the semester,” she said.
She also said she would prefer studying there rather than in the library.
“Here you could talk and have food and drink options, which you can’t have in the library,” said Zielinski.
Williams said students have a different time frame and that, sometimes, they are very active late at night.
“There’s Eastern Standard Time and there’s daylight saving time and then there’s student time,” Williams said. “It’s 2 a.m. and they might want to grab a cup of Starbucks and they might want to have a study group. So, they work on a very different time zone than a traditional structured campus.”
Starbucks will be the only venue in the food court open 24/7. Genser said that he hopes it stays open. He said the Office of Business Services and the Division of Student Affairs will make the final decision.
Written by: Annarely Rodriguez and Keren Moros
