Cutbacks in the Cardinal Club

By Lauren Rothering
Cardinal Staff

No more Western burgers. No more quesadillas. No more cheese curds. No mushroom and swiss. No grilled ham and cheese.

At least there are still cheeseburgers, or “The All-Star Cheeseburger.”
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It is no secret that there have been some noticeable changes in the Cardinal Club here at Saint Mary’s University. Students returned to campus this August expecting to order the same tacos, nachos, and pizzas that were offered for transfer meals last year. What they encountered instead was a scaled down, renamed, “streamlined” menu that limits meal transfers to 10 options with a choice of chips or fries and no soda refills. What happened?

Curt Coshenet, director of dining services, offers some explanation. “Students (in the Cardinal Club) need to come in, eat, and go,” he said. With the Cardinal Club set up the way it was last year, “we weren’t doing that.”

Coshenet explains that the demand for lunch transfers was preventing the food offered in the Cardinal Club from being completely fresh; employees were forced to make dozens of burgers, chicken patties and fries ahead of time to fill the demand.

“We want to serve you a better product downstairs,” said Coshenet. “I want to serve five items and do it fantastic.”

Although quality is a concern, economics played perhaps an even bigger role in the changes.

Coshenet defended that his “answer is ‘yes’ to the students if it’s within economic means.”

However, in order to keep SMU the “most economically valued private school in the conference,” cutbacks sometimes have to be made.

Are these explanations enough to appease the many disgruntled Cardinal Club patrons? “I think it’s ridiculous,” said junior Jody Bangerter. “You’re paying more but getting less.”

This seems to be the common theme among students, including senior Mike Miller.

“We’re paying more to come here (with the tuition increase), so I feel like they should be offering more services,” said Miller. “I don’t want to feel I’m going to get in trouble for getting more pop. We can get refills in the caf, why not in the pub?”

Coshenet believes that Chartwells is a food service “for the masses, not the one.” But what happens when the Western-burger-deprived “one” becomes “the masses”?