It’s a bright, sunny Thursday afternoon, and you and your fellow students are piling into the dining halls after 11 a.m. classes. Imagining the beautiful Southwest Salad at North Dining Hall has gotten you through the day, and the time has finally come. You swipe your card, smiling at the dining hall worker only for that smile to fade as you come to terms with the situation. You see a line of students spanning all the way around the dining hall, past the salad station and to the dole whip machine in the back. You sigh — no one, especially you, has time for that long line. You decide to table your Southwest Salad dream to eat fast and go back to being an academic weapon.
Every year, Notre Dame expands its course catalog, updates its historic infrastructure and considers what it really means to improve the Notre Dame student experience. Dorm renovations are at the forefront of this ongoing effort, and Graham Family Hall is the university’s newest addition. Over the past decade, four of the five newest dorms on campus — Flaherty, Dunne, J-Fam, and Graham — have been established on East Quad, pushing Notre Dame’s campus further north. Additionally, as construction on new dorms begins, the building previously known as Zahm Hall is being used as transitional housing for former Fisher residents. Now, that brings us back to the most important ramification of this situation: the dining halls.
“North or South Dining Hall?” is one of the most heated debates and points of contention between students on campus. Typically, those geographically closest to North Dining Hall favor North, and likewise for South Dining Hall. South has historically garnered more support in the debate, as a greater population of students have resided on South Quad in the past. However, thanks to the addition of Graham and the displacement of Fisher residents, over 400 students have joined the north side of campus this semester. This demographic shift brings into question what dining hall is truly superior, and how a surplus of students on one side of campus can impact the dining hall experience that we all know and love.
Sophomores, juniors and seniors who moved across campus have had to adjust to their new locations relative to the dining halls on campus. Andrew Bellissimo, a sophomore living in Graham, used to live in Pangborn Hall on the south side of campus. As one could assume, he frequented South Dining Hall the majority of the time last year as it was closer and he preferred it. However, with the recent move to Graham, things have changed.
“I used to go to South all the time with my friends when I lived in Pangborn last year,” Bellissimo said. “But now, 95% of the time, my friends go to North Dining Hall.”
Despite going to North more often this year, Bellissimo still prefers South for a variety of reasons. “South has more open seating and just looks nicer and more inviting,” Bellissimo said. “North is too dense, and the residential people never considered the impact of moving two dorms to the north part of campus.”
In addition to Bellissimo, junior Adam Akan has lived in Fisher Hall since freshman year, but, because the hall has been demolished, he and his fellow Fishermen find themselves living in transitional housing in Zahm. South has always been a no-brainer for Akan, but the freshmen in Fisher have no memories of the dorm before its relocation to the north side of campus.
“Many Fisher freshmen go to North simply out of the geographic convenience,” Akan said. “However, many sophomores, juniors and visiting seniors do make an effort to go to SDH when we have a bit more time. SDH has the ‘Fisher Table’ and was where we ate together for years. We are very emotionally connected to SDH.”
Even though North may be getting more visitors, does that really mean that they will be crowned as the “best dining hall”? With more people comes more traffic, and it has been apparent to some loyal North Dining Hall goers that lines seem to span a little bit longer than in the past, which may deter some from going.
Senior Mya McClure has been in Johnson Family Hall for the past four years and is a North Dining Hall veteran. North is her personal preference when choosing dining halls because. In addition to its close proximity to the home of the Valks, she has found it much easier to navigate than South.
“I think it’s hard to tell [exactly how busy it gets] because I’m eating at different times than last year, but I know that specifically the salad lines on Tuesday and Thursday have been the longest I’ve ever seen them,” McClure said. “I’ve seen them wrapped around past the salad bar and even past the dole whip machine. The other day I couldn’t get a salad because I didn’t have enough time. Dinners haven’t been as bad as I expected, but lunches definitely have more people.”
The construction of new dorms and the relocation of students to opposite sides of campus has caused a shift in the dining hall dynamic on Notre Dame. Overcrowded tables and rampant lines have proposed the question of whether a new dining hall should open or if it’s necessary for the university to reevaluate students’ concerns. If this busy situation continues, the Southwest Salad may stay a distant dream.