Banquet room provides multiple opportunities

The University Banquet room, home to the larger round tables located in the rear of the Sodexho dining hall, often provides an extra place for students to sit during the peak hours of lunch and dinner.

However, the banquet room is often reserved for specific guests or groups and students are unable to access the rooms.

On most of these occasions, only one side of the banquet room will be booked. A divider separates the 150 person occupancy room, said Lisa Castillo, coordinator of Office Services.

Castillo said she tries to make it a point to only book half of the room, but under certain circumstances, events require more than half of the room.

Many freshmen living in the residence halls, who are required to have a meal plan, said they do not feel as though they are affected by banquet room bookings during peak hours. They freshmen said it’s more fun to sit where everyone is walking around and they can see people.

In addition, they said sitting in the banquet room may make them miss out on excitement in the main dining room or from meeting new people and seeing friends.

“Most of the students eat out in the dining room anyway and I’ve been back there (in the banquet room) before- it’s kind of dark and secluded,” said Ricky Busch, sophomore Mass Communication major.

Stefani Baker said that although the banquet room is used as an overflow for students, it is usually not needed anyways when the banquet room is closed off.

“I would not normally sit back there unless it’s overly crowded and there is no where else to sit,” Baker said.

Some other students said seating in the banquet room is better when there are large groups of friends who all want to sit together.

“It’s nice every now and then to sit in there because we don’t have to yell down to the other end of the table to get someone’s attention,” said student Amanda Miller. “The round tables just make it easier and we can hear each other talking because it’s not so loud.”

However, some students said they rely on the empty seats in the University Banquet room for comfort and quieter setting.

“I choose to sit there when I have a test I need to be studying for,” Miller said. “It’s so much quieter, and much more comfortable.”

Students and faculty are able to reserve the University Banquet room free of charge if the reservation is related to a school event. Student or faculty members who wish to reserve the banquet room for functions not related to the school receive a discount. According to Castillo, seating for 75 people costs $175, and to seat 150 the price is $250. Any outside persons who wish to reserve the banquet room are charged $250 to seat 75 persons and $500 to seat 150 persons.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 3 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry