After the University's Dining Services shut down the Garden Room, the Faculty Senate was left to explore other ways to foster an "intellectual community" between students and faculty members.
The Garden Room, located in Hotel E on the West Range, functioned as a full-service restaurant that served lunches to students, faculty, administrators and their guests, with the idea of promoting intellectual exchange. After consistently doing poor business, it did not reopen this semester.
Faculty members continue looking for ways to reopen the Garden Room, former Faculty Senate Chairman David T. Gies said.
"Where we thought we might have to give up on the Garden Room, we're not," Gies said. "We're expanding our ideas instead."
The Senate is researching options and still does not anticipate the Garden Room's reopening anytime soon, Faculty Senate Chairwoman Patricia H. Werhane said.
Budget concerns are causing the most problems right now, Faculty Senate Chairman-Elect Robert M. Grainger said, adding that fundraising efforts may help the situation.
The Garden Room closed because it proved too large a drain on Dining Services resources and University administrators could not offer the restaurant funding.
Faculty Senate members met with Vice President for Development Robert D. Sweeney to discuss fundraising opportunities. The Faculty Senate is working with administrators to find possible donors to support the Garden Room, Grainger said.
"There may be somebody out there who would be interested to help us out," he said.
Werhane mentioned Harvard University's faculty club as a "gracious dining club," which the University should try to emulate. The Faculty Senate is not looking for a five-star restaurant but rather a "nice, quiet place with good food," she said.
Many of the faculty dining facilities around the nation end up losing money, Grainger said. The Faculty Senate needs to research ways to avoid such a funding problem before making any decisions, he said.
Discussion still circulates on whether a new facility should be built for the faculty dining room or if it should be located in an existing facility.
This debate also came up when faculty members first proposed the Garden Room in October 1997.
"One of the questions is 'Can we renovate that space adequately?'" Grainger said. "My preference is to see what we could do there" in the present West Range location.
He said the final decision rests on the recommendations architects offer about renovation possibilities.
Werhane said the Faculty Senate does not expect the Garden Room to be a top priority for the University. She noted funding for graduate students and increased faculty salaries as top initiatives for the Faculty Senate.
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