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Printer-Friendly ModeStarbucks construction began too late
October 1, 2007 —
SVSU is like one, giant, double-edged sword sometimes. All too often is it that one good thing lends itself to something not so good. I use the words "not so good" because these opposing qualities aren't always interchangeable, which I mean as a good thing. Overall, in my opinion, the good qualities of our school far outweigh the bad. That doesn't mean that there aren't qualms to be had.
Some examples of this double-edged ideology: tuition rising annually while remaining the cheapest in the state, a brand new Pioneer at the cost of displacing engineering students to trailers for an entire year, a sense of community on campus while still operating, in some ways, as a grand version of community, and so forth.
One of the most recent double-edged qualities, however, is that which concerns coffee. Due to open in mid-November, Starbucks will be gracing SVSU with its presence in Science East where Java City used to be. With this renovation, Java City has been moved across campus to the C-Store.
The positive side of this is Java City. Last year, residential students later at night and students who stay mostly on the Curtiss side of campus found themselves with limited coffee options. There is that lovely coffee machine in the Curtiss Hall vending area where you can get specialty coffees that really only share names in common with actual specialty coffees or low-grade machine-dispensed coffees in paper cups that seem to work better as conduits of heat than insulators.
Of course, if that didn't suit your fancy, you could go to the C-Store and get a very, very slightly higher grade of "specialty" coffees from automatic dispensers. Most people, on the other hand, don't know what real cappuccino is because they think what 7-11 or McDonald's have is cappuccino or mocha. It is not. Sadly, locations like those were rated in the top three coffee locations in Saginaw according to the Saginaw News, which shows the region's clear lack of taste when it comes to the quality of coffee.
While Java City coffee isn't the highest caliber of joe, it's still a big step up from the previous choices. Furthermore, campus residents can get coffee at Java City at much later hours than ever before, as can other students during their breaks from classes.
The negative side of this is Starbucks. I don't have anything against Starbucks, and their coffee is somewhat better than Java City. The problem lies in the fact that Starbucks doesn't open until the middle of November. For some, this inconvenience is what has been occurring for students who stick more closely to the other side of campus over the last few years. Now, I'm a patient person, but by the time mid-November gets here, we'll basically be done with our fall semester without a coffee location on one side of the campus. While not a crisis, it's nice to get an actual mocha or latte between classes or at break when you don't have enough time to cross to the C-Store.
What really makes this all the more frustrating is that I was on campus during the summer semester and can assure you that the business Java City had was hardly worth it being open, yet they chose to not start construction until a week before fall semester. This was a clearly well-thought and astute decision because I'm sure that Starbucks will be even less busy than Java City was during the summer.
Construction is one of those details that never fails to amaze me. I sometimes wonder if those in charge of construction check their calendars when scheduling to see when the least opportune time would be and set that as the date for construction to begin - just to annoy everyone else. In the case of Starbucks, however, the annoying aspect isn't what makes it the most baffling. It's the fact that Aramark - the company in charge of all dining services - must be losing money. Then again, maybe they aren't or maybe that isn't really a concern. Either way, I did think that customer service was a concern for them, and I'm not sure how well they are servicing the customers in making them wait for something that could have already been completed.