By Anna Catherman
Big Al’s is dead.
The campus center’s basement dining establishment is quiet. Still. Too still.
Metz calls the rebranded ice cream and hamburger shop “Sizzle and Swirl at Big Al’s”. The moniker change is just one of many which have resulted in many students abandoning their once-beloved hangout spot.
The changes to Big Al’s and the dining hall haven’t all been bad. The Poblano’s bar in the dining hall is popular, and the return of hard ice cream is also very welcome. It’s become apparent that Perry’s ice cream is never coming back to the dining hall in its previous all-you-can eat format. Due to pandemic-related production cuts, Perry’s no longer has the capacity to provide Houghton students with unlimited ice cream. The idea of keeping the dining hall open later was also a popular student request. Athletes especially wanted late-night dining options other than greasy hamburgers and fries.
Replacing meal exchange with extended dining hours turned out to be the least beneficial change – and put the final nail in Big Al’s coffin.
Due to the end of meal exchange, the number of students at Big Al’s each night has declined dramatically. Friends would gather to study, play card games, or just talk. Lines used to wrap around the post office during busy times. Now, it’s rare to spot more than a dozen people at Big Al’s. And extended dining hours? It didn’t provide student athletes with the nutritious meals they requested. They’re getting leftovers. Some nights, they have a few options, but many nights they’re forced to choose between either tacos or pizza.
Oh, and there’s no more free ice cream, not even the soft serve that was present last year, an issue which was heavily protested at the beginning of the academic year.
Dining services are tricky for any college campus, especially one as rural as Houghton.
Students can’t easily get off campus for a healthy meal or for socialization. Houghton thrives when students band together as a community. Cliche, but true.
With a few changes, Big Al’s could be an important part of that community again. Reviving Big Al’s wouldn’t take as much effort as some might claim. Bringing back meal exchange would be an instant boost. Many students would welcome back the old Sunday-Thursday meal exchange, but a hybrid approach could be a good compromise. Preserving the new extended dining hours while also allowing students to use one or two meal swipes per week at Big Al’s would be the best of both worlds.
Restoring menu items that students miss and adding new ones could also help. Buffalo chicken sandwiches could make a triumphant comeback. And maybe, just maybe, some healthy options. Salads? Gluten-free buns for hamburgers?
The smallest change to dining services that would bring the university the most goodwill, though, would be returning our soft serve machine to the dining hall, thank you very much. ★
