Did anyone really eat there anyway?
In other news, Wien residents awoke to a cordial email from Housing & Dining today, apologizing for the shut-down of the building’s food court. In its place, Health Services and friends are moving into the arena (perhaps adding to the onslaught of mental institution jokes about the building).
As a gesture of reconciliation, Dining Services is offering Wien residents “$5 FREE DINING DOLLARS” to use on campus at their favorite venues. The email also states that the typical sandwich at Cafe 212 costs $5.95. At least there’s the candy corn?
See the cheery dining advisory after the jump.
From: Columbia Housing and Dining
Date: Sep 21, 2007 12:16 PM
Subject: Free Dining Dollars
Dear Wien Resident,
As you know, the Wien Food Court has closed. Construction has begun in that space to accommodate the relocation of several Health Services Departments, Alice! Health Promotion Program, Administration, and Insurance. This move, scheduled for early next year, will result in service improvements for students: additional examination and consultation rooms will be added to the 3rd and 4th floors of John Jay, creating more same-day appointments, as well as confidentiality; the new configuration of the insurance department will also create more privacy. Additionally, the Office of Disability Services will become much more accessible by moving from the 8th floor of Lerner, which is not ADA-compliant, to the 7th. This will give Counseling and Psychological Services room to add more private exam space.
At Dining Services, we understand your need for convenient daily sustenance, so we’re giving you, Wien resident, $5 FREE DINING DOLLARS to try at your favorite campus dining location.
If you want something nearby, look no further than Lenfest Cafe, right next door on the second floor of Greene Hall. It offers a great seating area, chef-prepared sushi, and daily specials, such as hamburgers and chicken sandwiches straight from the grill! Lenfest Cafe welcomes undergraduates and Dining Dollars.
If you are really missing the Food Court, don’t despair – the Mill Korean has been relocated to Mudd’s Carleton Lounge. The hot lunch buffet is only 38 cents an ounce!
And new this year at Cafe 212 – get your salad or sandwich made-to-order with an unlimited choice of toppings at a fixed price of $5.95 for sandwiches and $6.50 for salads.
To get your $5 FREE DINING DOLLARS, simply visit the Customer Service Center in 118 Hartley Hall, Monday – Friday from 9:00am – 5:00pm. Offer expires Friday, October 5, 2007. Plus, if you purchase $100 or more Dining Dollars while you’re there, you’ll get an additional 10% in FREE Dining Dollars!
Sincerely,
Housing & Dining
Tags: dining, sort-of-free food?, wien
21 September 2007 @ 2:38 PM · 11 comments
on 
Just what exactly is moving there?
Also, wtf happened to the Student Government poll to turn it into a lounge? You know, one that isn’t in the rat-filled basement?
moving the Alice office out of Lerner and all of Health Services administation (communications, business, insurance, etc.) out of John Jay, and all of that into Wien. Disability Services is moving from 8th floor Lerner to the 7th floor (where Alice is now), and CPS is expanding into their space. Primary Care is getting the offices that free up in John Jay.
And a big part of why Wien’s now Health Services space and not a lounge or something is that the previous plans for Health Services (McVickar Hall, which was supposed to have every HS office in one place) fell through.
“Ironically, the email also states that a sandwich at Café 212. At least there’s the candy corn?”
what exactly does this mean, bwog?
a bit unfair? I mean, the kosher deli closed in hartley and relocated, why weren’t hartley residents given $5? how have wien residents been affected negatively by housing. what losses did they incur that require recompensation from housing?
really have to ask?
they have to live in wien. isn’t that bad enough? 5 dollars for the one (theoretically) redeeming factor of the building? hardly seems like enough.
I mean really, at least the Manhattanville residents are getting new housing.
mill at carleton makes my day better.
Noooooooooooooooooooooo! I can no longer get a million noodles compacted into a 10x10x4 inch block for six dollars!
Wien was never a mental institution. That’s an old and highly implausible rumor, considering that Wien (then Johnson Hall) was built in the mid-1920s, more than 30 years after the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum ceased to exist.
I was going to make the same point, but Tao beat me to it. Buell Hall is the only remaining building on campus that used to be part of the asylum.
Wien was built by Columbia as a dorm for female grad students. It later became a co-ed grad student dorm and was converted to an undergrad dorm in the mid-’80s. As Tao notes, it was originally called Johnson Hall; it was renamed for Lawrence Wien in 1986 or ’87, shortly before he died.
can we please change every instance of “Café” to “Café”? thanks.
“At Dining Services, we understand your need for convenient daily sustenance”
who writes these emails?