Murray-Dodge Café celebrates 50th Anniversary, drawing over 260 students

Students gathered near McCosh Walk on Wednesday for the Murray-Dodge Café’s 50th anniversary celebration, held from 5–8 p.m. The event, with more than 260 attendees, featured free cookies, Murray-Dodge Café merchandise giveaways, and performances from multiple student groups.

Murray-Dodge Café, located in the basement of Murray-Dodge Hall, is best known for its free cookies, tea, and coffee, offered from noon to midnight every day of the week. The café is operated by student staff and overseen by the Office of Religious Life (ORL). 

The anniversary event was spearheaded by the café’s student staff, Senior Supervisor Brooklyn Fraser ’27 said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. Fraser supervises the café alongside Leyna Kurtenbach ’28 and Deborah Olorundare ’28.

Fraser is a reporter-in-training for Features and Sports for the ‘Prince.’

Just last year, Murray-Dodge both reduced its staff and experienced some fluctuation in its operating hours. The current hours are expanded by 30 minutes compared to last year. The anniversary event was organized by the café’s student staff in the last few weeks.

“We’ve known the anniversary was coming up, since way back last spring. But we found out in August that we were responsible for planning the event. We thought that the event was being planned by the ORL,” Fraser explained. The team then had six weeks to prepare for the celebration. 

The celebration was supported by the ORL, the Undergraduate Student Government Projects Board, and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. 

Fraser noted the importance of social media in promoting the celebration. Murray-Dodge collaborated with The Hungry Tiger, a popular Instagram account run by Alistair Wright ’27 and James Swinehart ’27 that focuses on Princeton’s food scene.

Wright is the Business Manager for the ‘Prince.’

Fraser reached out to Wright in July, leading to a collaborative Instagram reel advertising the event, which became “a great way of promoting” the celebration. “I knew that was a very big channel for student outreach,” she said. 

In addition to free cookies for the duration of the event, the café distributed free pins and 100 special edition 50th anniversary mugs. 50 were given to attendees at 5 p.m., with the remainder handed out at 7 p.m. 

The incentives advertised on social media attracted students to the event. “I saw a reel on Instagram, and then got emails from Murray-Dodge as well, and I was intrigued by the free mug and cookies,” Catherine Yan ’29 said to the ‘Prince.’ 

Grace Hua ’30 agreed, telling the ‘Prince,’ “I saw the free cookies, and I saw the free mug, and I heard that Princeton doesn’t really give us as much free things as it used to, so we have to get the free things.” 

Students began lining up outside of Murray-Dodge around 4:15 p.m., Isaiaz Whitaker ’28 explained in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “My plan was to get in line around 4:50, but I saw the line already started forming around 4:15 p.m.,” Whitaker said. 

“I think the beginning was as busy as we had expected,” supervisor Leyna Kurtenbach ’28 wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “Fifteen minutes before the start time, the line went as far as the lampost behind the ORL building.” Kurtenbach said that the café scanned approximately 260 attendees’ PUIDs, though “that number doesn’t even encompass the people who came in just to spectate the performances or who just stopped in briefly to grab a cookie.” 

The event featured three sets of student performances: live music from an Opus string quartet, ForWord Collective slam poetry readings, and Child’s Play improv performances. 

These collaborations had been underway since the café’s supervisors first began planning the event. “I wanted a variety of performance groups to represent that Murray[-Dodge] is open to everybody and a diverse environment,” Fraser said. Fraser had reached out to various student performers, including Natasha Wipfler-Kim ’27, a violinist for Opus.

Opus delivered the first performance of the night, welcoming attendees with chamber string music. The group initially planned on performing two pieces, but ended up performing for longer, according to cellist Maurice Neuman ’28. “Some people really seemed very interested,” Neuman told the ‘Prince.’

The event also featured opportunities for attendees to sign a banner, which will be displayed in Murray-Dodge Café, and decorate the café’s chalkboard walls. 

As they celebrated, many students described their appreciation for the café. “It’s a lovely environment. I can stop by and get cookies very often,” Wipfler-Kim said. 

The café’s staff also remarked on the space’s significance, both personally and to the broader Princeton community. 

“The café is an amazing space to bring the Princeton community together and I think yesterday demonstrated how great multipurpose spaces like Murray-Dodge are for students,” Fraser said. “I am really proud of how much more connected the café feels to campus life, and I love getting to meet people from all over campus with such diverse backgrounds and interests in one space.” 

“I never knew that being hired as a baker in a little on-campus café would have had such a great effect on my life,” Kurtenbach said.

Hifza Kaleem is a News contributor for the ‘Prince’ and a member of the Class of 2030. 

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.