Red Jacket Dining Hall recovered quickly after a temporary closure on Friday afternoon was brought on by plumbing problems.
A leaking pipe between RJ and Southside Café prompted the closing. Sarah Gittere, general manager of campus dining, confirmed via e-mail that there have been small issues related to this one larger problem for some time. Periodically, water would seep from a wall to form a puddle in Southside. On Friday, the puddle began to spread more rapidly than it had in the past.
As a result, workers had to open the wall and part of the floor in order to try to finally patch up the leak. There have been a number of speculations as to why RJ closed down, but Campus Auxiliary Services has made it clear that the unforeseen closing was due to a plumbing dilemma.
Red Jacket was originally expected to be closed for a week but instead remained closed for just three days, reopening Monday Nov. 15 for all-you-care-to-eat dinner after repairs and sanitation were completed.
“The state facilities team and CAS facilities team worked closely together to resolve the issue. This joint effort is why we able to minimize the amount of time that RJ was closed,” Gittere wrote.
CAS moved very quickly to accommodate the South Village students who were without a dining hall over the weekend, Gittere wrote. Mary Jemison Dining Hall was opened for all-you-care-to-eat dinner and brunch over the weekend. All CAS employees who worked at Red Jacket and Southside Café – except for a few who worked the Sunday late night shift at Southside – kept all of their hours and worked in Mary Jemison throughout the weekend.
In addition, Yanks Deli in Mary Jemison was opened during the afternoon as another means of providing continuous service throughout the weekend. Uncle Vito’s, a pizza delivery service based out of Letchworth Dining Hall, provided coupons to help compensate for the inconvenience.
“My team took care of it as if we did it every day,” Gittere wrote. “I am very fortunate to have a great team. I spoke to many students as they came in for dinner on Friday and they were really understanding.”
The CAS team also distributed hot chocolate and coffee to students residing in the South Village as they walked to class on Monday just to thank them for their patience and let students know CAS appreciated their understanding, Gittere explained.
“This issue has been resolved and shouldn’t cause any more issues,” she wrote.