Coffee shop losing $20k a year

Student Senate has recently focused its attention to the Book Ends Coffee Shop in the Reta E. King Library.

On Wednesday, April 6, Dale Grant, vice president of finance and administration, said the coffee shop is losing about $26,000 per year and that right now Vice Presidents Charles Snare, of academic affairs, and Jon Hansen, of enrollment management, marketing & student services, are taking that loss from their state accounts.

Tracy Shuck, director of dining services, came to the Senate meeting Monday to discuss the coffee shop.

He said the traffic to the shop is good, but they need more commuters to make profits. He said the way the coffee shop and the EagleBucks work don’t allow for profit off the EagleBucks.

Shuck said there was a barista style at one point in time, in a different location, that wasn’t successful.

Stephanie Alred, who is the chair of the Campus Improvement Committee, said the question in front of Senate is whether or not they want to contribute about $10,000 to make an “investment in the coffee shop.”

The coffee shop is run as a separate entity so as to not affect the other three dining services—the cafeteria dining room; the Eagle Grille Food Court, and the Snackers C-Store. This was done so that the price of a meal plan could remain at a lower price.

Shuck said at the coffee shop this year about $26-28,000 was spent via EagleBucks and about $7,000 was spent via cash or credit.

A suggestion was made to have the coffee shop be cash only.

Shuck said that wouldn’t be successful because they’ve tried that in the past and they did not get enough traffic through the door to make it worth having it cash only.

Senators also mentioned that there have been complaints about how loud the machines are for the library and Alfred commented that the library is trying to promote the main floor as a more social atmosphere and use the upper level and lower level as the quiet study areas.