Following a mainline break last Wednesday morning, Umphrey Lee will now be closed through Saturday, September 14 as stated in an email from the Office of Facilities Planning and Management. Students are already feeling the impacts of the building closure, especially in the temporary absence of a main dining hall.
SMU’s campus boasts many dining options, but students tend to dine where it’s most convenient. For students like Kaylee Levin who live in residential commons near Umphrey Lee, the building closure has been a source of struggle.
“I live in Virginia Snider, so it’s a lot closer to go to Umphrey, but it’s been a lot more inconvenient because I’ve been having to find other places to go,” Levin said.
The absence of Umphrey Lee impacts lines at other dining options like Arnold and Hughes Trigg. The wait times deter some students like freshman, Mehr Hameed, from getting meals from campus dining options.
“I haven’t noticed food shortages, but the lines at everywhere you want to get food are huge. Like even Chick-Fil-A, Panera, everywhere,” said Hameed. “So it kind of just makes me want to stay in my dorm and have Kraft mac and cheese instead of actually going to the dining hall.”
SMU Dining has made the proper adjustments to Arnold Dining Commons’ capacity and food options in order to sufficiently provide students with what they need, so students like Hameed can enjoy mac and cheese at the dining hall instead.
However, long lines at Arnold still persist causing students to use more of their flex dollars than they had anticipated.
“I had been trying to save that [flex] because it’s only been two weeks so I was like ‘let me save up my flex’ but since Umphrey Lee’s been closed I’ve been having to use them more,” said Levin.
While students and faculty are patiently awaiting the re-opening of Umphrey Lee, SMU Dining is taking steps to ensure students can adequately get the food they need, said Mike Esquenazi, Executive Director of the SMU Hospitality Group, in an email.
“SMU Dining will continue monitoring the situation and make any necessary adjustments to staffing and food supply to ensure smooth operations,” said Esquenazi in an email. “We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and appreciate everyone’s patience while the facilities team works to restore operations at Umphrey Lee.”
Ellie Hershkowitz and Katie Bergelin contributed to the reporting of this story.
