HPU modernizes various facilities over winter break

By Kevin Green, January 24, 2012

By Steven Haller

While the students were away for three weeks, High Point University’s campus underwent a few changes, namely renovations to the bookstore and the C-Store 2, plus installation of a new ventilation system in the Café.

Barnes & Noble and HPU have been working together to improve the way the Slane Center bookstore operates and to improve the layout of the store itself. Textbooks are no longer available on-hand at the bookstore, but are instead stored at a Barnes & Noble warehouse close by.

“I think the most impressive thing is moving to the online ordering system for books,” said Roger Clodfelter, vice president of Communication and Culture at HPU. “From our feedback from students, they are becoming more and more comfortable ordering books online.”

“I normally like to buy new textbooks when ordering my materials for class and I found the new way to order books online was very convenient and easy to use,” said junior Nathan Smith.

Students were able to order their books online during winter break and have them delivered to their dorm rooms before they returned to campus. HPU delivered over 1,600 sets of books to dorm rooms during winter break.

Students who missed the deadline for room delivery were able to order their textbooks and have them delivered to the Slane bookstore the next day.

The renovated layout of the bookstore is a more visible change.

“The renovations allowed us to be able to put up more merchandise,” said Clodfelter. “Also, we tried to make sure the artwork, like the black and white image of Roberts Hall, reflected the history of the university.”

There are still more changes to come to the bookstore. Clodfelter says that there are plans to install official book-ordering kiosks that look similar to those found near the Slane concierge. The store’s glass windows will be covered with a graphic to make the book-ordering kiosks prominent. There are also plans for an awning to be placed above the bookstore’s doors inside Slane next to Starbucks to better draw students’ eyes to the bookstore.

C-Store 2 was also renovated over winter break. According to Clodfelter, the interior design was not up to the level of the other restaurants on campus. Students’ requests for healthier options was another reason the popular night-time location underwent changes, specifically with the addition of the fruit and other refrigerated packaged goods now available.

Other additions include a self-serve Coke Freestyle machine that can create 100-plus different beverage combinations, the self-serve milkshake/smoothie machine, and a microwave in case students simply cannot wait to get back to your room to make their popcorn or heat up their hot pocket.

“The C-Store2 renovation is the culmination of student feedback, national research and cutting-edge technological solutions to create a first class convenience store atmosphere,” said senior food service director David ter Kuile, “The Coke Freestyle on the HPU campus is one of the first in the southeast region of the U.S.”

“The Coke Freestyle machine is amazing with all the choices I get. My favorite drink combination is the original Coke mixed with orange,” said junior Kayla Buechner.

“I live in Belk, so I am at the C-Store 2 all the time. I definitely like the new look and my favorite feature has got to be the wall candy,” said senior Andrew Woods.

Another campus location that HPU enhanced over winter break was the Café. One new feature in the Café is the Mediterranean bar, which offers a wide variety of healthy snack options, such as hummus, tabouli, and tzatziki, all of which are made in-house.

The Café has begun to offer more variety at its existing stations as well. The grill and the deli now offer daily specialties, and the new expo station offers a different meal item each day.

Other renovations to the Café are not noticed so much with the eyes but more with the nose, such as the new ventilation system in Café. That’s right students; the infamous “Café smell” is gone.

“As the Café has evolved in how we provide food to students, we have done more display cooking out in front of everywhere. That [preparing the food in the eating area] has created challenges with the smell,” said Clodfelter. “We put the ventilation in place because students have been concerned about how it [the Café] makes them smell.”

The display cooking allows students to see their food made fresh in front of them, which is something HPU did not want to give up. The new ventilation system works to pull the smell, generated from the display cooking in the eating area, out of the building.

“The new ventilation system pulls air from the flat top grill and pizza area and filters the air through a series of carbon fiber filters, cleansing the air, making for a more pleasant dining experience,” said David ter Kuile.

In addition to this infrastructure change, the Café is now steaming vegetables rather than cooking them to reduce smell and improve taste, freshness and presentation.

“The smell in a room is something you don’t notice unless something is wrong. I didn’t even think about the smell when I first walked in [the Café] this semester, which is a very good thing,” said Pat Stein, a junior who says he visits the Café at least once a day and sometimes twice a day.

With the “Café smell” gone now, HPU will be undergoing new changes elsewhere. The School of Education and Centennial Square remain on schedule to be fully operational this coming fall. Also, the renovation to the patio on the Blessing side of Slane is expected to be completed by the end of the current semester.

There are also tentative plans to change up the dining plan for the next academic year. According to Clodfelter, HPU “will be looking to make some enhancements in terms of how the meal plan works.”

He was not ready to divulge any details, but it could be something for students to watch for.