In addition to navigating the temporary serving areas in South Dining Hall’s west dining room and the partially-under-construction former serving area amid renovations, students have been facing abnormally warm temperatures as they eat in South’s east dining room.
On Dec. 3, measurements taken by The Observer found that dining hall temperatures reached up to 80.1 Fahrenheit.
In a statement, ND Dining confirmed that the renovation efforts are temporarily affecting the heat balance and wrote they hope to resolve the issue over the upcoming Christmas break.
“While that effect is much more noticeable during seasonal transitions, the holiday break will enable us to shut down the building for several days and make system adjustments intended to mitigate the balance issues. We appreciate our campus community’s continued patience as we work to improve their mealtime experience,” a spokesperson for ND Dining wrote.
Grace Shaible, Michael Agsam, Ryan King and Jack Knorr, Notre Dame students who frequent South Dining Hall described the dining hall as “unbearable,” “excessively [hot]” “inconvenient” and “very uncomfortable,” respectively.
Despite their displeasure with the temperature, all four of these students said it was not affecting their choice of which dining hall to visit, as South is more convenient given its proximity to their residence halls.
Ariana Yeganeh, another student, said the temperature was okay and had not noticed changes throughout the year.
The issue has caused enough frustration amongst the student body to cause Student Body President Jerry Vielhauer to speak with Campus Dining.
Vielhauer wrote in a statement that executive director of retail dining Luigi Alberganti and executive director of institutional dining strategy David McDonald “assured us that they are aware of the problem and working to address it. Due to the construction in SDH, the heating and cooling system has been out of whack and they are just as frustrated with it as we are, as they are working in an already hot kitchen.”
Dining hall workers also shared frustrations about the impact of the heat on their work.
Brittany Buhr, a dining hall worker, said, “It is hard to work when it is really hot.”
Nakaya Wilkins, a dining hall worker, added, “I swear someone said they was gonna turn it down, but I don’t think they did.”
Anders Ivie, a cook, described the whole building as hot, specifically citing that the upstairs locker rooms for dining hall staff were warm.
Buhr said the staff must “rotate fruit all the time because the heat in here will cook it.” Ivie, however, reported that the heat is not changing food production.
“It is not changing how we prepare the food because we have to make sure it is up to temp. We make sure that all the stuff is kept up to temp anyways. It would be more of a concern if it were colder,” Ivie said.