Art Cordova
Staff Writer
Egan Express closing heralded Christ the Teacher’s new eatery: The Well. But despite its grandeur and novelty, it’s left some students in a tricky conundrum.
With the advent of CTT, a new dining space was promised and has been well-to-do. With bountiful business around lunch and dinner, and new pastries exciting students, there’s been a great deal of enthusiasm for the place. However, it came at the cost of closing Egan Express. Now anyone rushing to class in Egan must brave The Well’s lines.
The Egan Express used to serve the students in Egan Hall, providing them with salads, sandwiches, candies, and other foodstuffs. It was a great help for those who found most of their time in Egan, bouncing from class to class and needing some coffee and a bite to eat right before another resplendent hour and fifteen-minute lecture.
I spoke with Ian Hoover, a sophomore theology and history major and the head of the Breaking Barriers club, as he had come to me to express his concerns for the voices on campus that he thought were most neglected in this decision.
Beginning with his own experience, Hoover said, “Personally, it has caused a lot of distress. I have an undiagnosed falling disability. I remember one time it was 11:05 and I hadn’t eaten breakfast. It was lunch time, and Egan Express’s PB&Js helped me get through my two classes.”
As someone who leads Breaking Barriers and has many friends with disabilities, he expressed his grievances with closing Egan Express for the sake of The Well.
“My problem isn’t The Well. I think The Well is great and I’m glad it’s there. But we shouldn’t neglect Egan Express. It’s like neglecting a necessary vitamin,” Hoover stated.
He personally knew friends who suffered from diverse conditions that made rushing over to CTT to get food difficult; friends with non-fully developed hands, those who were wheelchair bound, or those with severe asthma, all of whom he vouched were hurt by the closing of Egan Express.
These were all valid concerns, but there was an obvious rebuttal, as uncharitable as it may be. “What about those who say ‘you should just plan better. It’s not a big deal, just rush in, get your food, and eat it.’” A passionate response followed.
“Planning and maneuvering is important, but not everything is predictable. My condition is mainly neurological, I could fall at any time. (Or) say for someone in a wheelchair … sometimes they have people walking with them but other times not. That whole thing about ‘just get your food and eat it’ is stupid.”
He then stressed concern that there were those who had packed schedules and for reasons outside of their control they were left with inconvenient times to eat. With the concern involving rushing those with disabilities, it painted an unfortunate picture.
The Well has been a celebrated addition to the university by most of those I have spoken to, and Hoover recognized this. Furthermore, costs may be too high to run both establishments at once.
Despite this, Hoover suggested, “Bring back Egan Express! Make it smaller, fine. Take some of the candy out, sure. We have (cafeteria) workers — who we need to be treating a lot better in my opinion — we still have the machines that cost money. We have the ability to keep it running. Anything that could provide food at Egan Express would be enough to get people by.”
This may be impossible for the university to do, but there could be something they do in the future to help support those who are trapped in Egan Hall with back-to-back classes and may not have the physical means to rush. But what do we do now?
Speaking from my own experience, I was walking through CTT one Monday ordering from The Well, and I couldn’t help but look around and admire the whole operation. I noticed that the worker there had frequently operated Egan express, and so I spoke with her briefly, asking her how she liked the new place.
She shared that she enjoyed working there and expressed that it was more spacious and gave students a lot more options to choose from, including a coffee machine in the near future and an ice cream machine, much like from the former campus coffee spot, Cupertino’s.
Ultimately, The Well is a good addition to our growing campus and will continue to improve, but we should recognize the issues that Egan Express solved. Solutions may be tough to find in this transition, but if we continue to keep charity at the forefront, we can overcome these obstacles.