Nearly 600 students have signed a petition criticizing the planned dining hall renovations in Rockefeller and Mathey Colleges, saying that the changes would detract from the distinctive mealtime experiences currently offered.
Under plans released last month, the long tables in the dining halls will be replaced with a combination of booths and smaller tables like those in Butler and Forbes colleges. The petition has drawn more than 200 signatures each from Rocky and Mathey, as well as the support of the Mathey College Council.
"We feel that would take away from the overall atmosphere, especially the gothic aspect," said Brendan Lyons '09, the Joline dormitory representative to the Mathey College Council, who is leading the protest in Mathey. "We like all the other renovations, including the new servery, but the new table setup would take away from the personality and overall experience of the colleges."
Last week, Matthew Halgren '09, who is in charge of the petition in Rocky, spoke with Mathey administrators and others working with the architects and interior designers. Though he said he initially left the meeting dissatisfied, he later talked with Rocky master Maria DiBattista and dean Oliver Avens and left convinced that student concerns would be considered in alternative plans.
"I am now optimistic that these alternative plans will better reflect student preferences for the Rocky Dining Hall seating configuration," Halgren said in an email.
The new table arrangements are part of a larger effort to revamp University dining halls following recommendations by the Task Force on Dining and Social Options, a group appointed by President Tilghman in 2004 to improve residential college life. Other proposed changes to the Rockefeller and Mathey dining halls are improved lighting and floors as well as exhibition-style cooking to increase freshness and choice.
Task force chair and German department chair Michael Jennings emphasized that the recommendations were based on student input. "Students served on the task force, we consulted with leaders from many student organizations and from all five colleges and we concluded with a series of focus groups for students to judge how we addressed these issues," he said.
Executive Vice President Mark Burstein added, "We came up with this concept because students felt passionately in the other direction, but if many students care passionately about it in this direction, it's something we have to consider."
Noting that many Butler and Forbes students enjoy the smaller tables, Burstein said, "The concept is trying to provide a less institutional, more restaurant feel to the dining halls ... Really what's changing is the furniture, the least part of the dining halls."
The students, however, argue that the changes would detract from the dining halls' traditional gothic appearance.
Halgren wrote in earlier letters to Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel and the Four Year Residential Planning Committee: "The Neo-Gothic halls in the northwest corner of campus are something unique to Princeton ... In order to maintain their appeal, they must retain their current footprint."
He suggested that other improvements, such as "ornate chandeliers appropriate to the halls' architecture with light bulbs that are easier to replace" and "sturdier tables and chairs with an antique appearance" would have less marked effects on the appearance of the dining halls.
The petition was organized after a meeting with Building Services April 21 that all Mathey College Council members attended.
"We had been under the impression that the meeting was to ask us, but in fact they were telling rather than asking us what we wanted to do," Lyons said. "All the members of the Mathey College Council, including me, were at this meeting and thought [that] this is not a good idea. It seems to me that 80 to 90 percent in Mathey support the cause ... The petition will help the people in charge of the renovations realize that."
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