The Presidential Dining Room has reopened for students with meal plan equivalency in response to various student complaints, and actions by students Raushanah Morgan, Elijah Bowdre and Courtney Peasant.
After spring break, the dining room discontinued its acceptance of meal plan recipients because of disruptive disturbances by some students and faculty complaints.
Morgan, Bowdre, and Peasant took action to regain the ability for meal plan users to eat in the dining room.
For two weeks, the three students spoke with members of the Student Government Association and Interim President Castell V. Bryant’s administrative assistant Eva Wanton.
The students then created a proposal suggesting that students wear professional attire to eat in the dining room.
Patrons who pay with cash or credit cards are not required to dress up to enter.
Morgan, an 18-year-old busines credit cards are not required to dress up to enter.
Morgan, an 18-year-old business administration student from Memphis, Tenn., believed meal plan recipients have the right to take advantage of eating in the dining room.
Morgan said administrators, such as Wanton, were helpful and gave her and them good advice about how to achieve their objective.
Eljiah Bowdre, an 18-year-old business student from Long Beach, Calif., who is also a freshman senator, said he brought the issue to light during a senate meeting.
Peasant, an 18-year-old business administrative student from Memphis, Tenn., said she helped present the issue to the senate and helped in the creation of the proposal.
“Students can still be proactive without being an elected student government official,” Peasant said.
The students wrote their proposal to Shelita Nelson, the general manger of Sodexho Food Services.
“We’re always willing to work with students, if they allow us to work with them,” Nelson said.
Nelson said she believed the proposal was very organized, and she liked that the students understood the type of environment the dining room has established. She said the Presidential Dining Room has a professional environment.
Jeanrico Luxama, 18, is a nursing student from Homestead who works in the dining room. He said the amount of student patrons in the dining room has decreased and the majority of students who eat there now are business administration students coming from forum.
The new rule created by the proposal has inconvenienced some students.
Alexis Blackwell, 18, was stopped in her orange and green FAMU sweatshirt at the entrance and was told by employees that she could not enter the presidential dining room.
“You already miss home cooked food, and now you have to wear a suit just to eat,” said Blackwell, a broadcast journalism student from Atlanta.
Freshman Class President James Bland, 19, a business administration student from Titusville, said approves of the new rule in the dining room because he believes that professional dress gives a person a different demeanor.
“If a person wants to enjoy the privileges in the Presidential Dining Room, they are going to have to sacrifice,” Bland said.
Morgan, Bowdre and Peasant said changes can be made on campus if students are motivated.
“We need more people who are walkers and not talkers,” Bowdre said.
Contact TeJay Henderson at mrhendersonis@yahoo.com