By Jonathan Wardle
With the upcoming month-long renovation, the Skyroom is looking for a facelift in more ways than one.
The Skyroom will be closed July 1 to Aug. 5 for renovations and to accommodate changes for a new menu, said Lynne Hansen, general manager of catering and restaurant operations for Dining Services.
During the closure, a soup, salad and pasta bar will be installed, along with a new computerized ordering system, she said. The walls will be painted, the carpets and upholstery will be cleaned and new plants will be put in.
In addition to the physical renovations, the Skyroom staff will undergo some major changes, including a new manager and a new team of student employees.
Hansen said student employees at the Skyroom were given notice on June 18 that their last day of employment at the Skyroom would be June 28.
According to a news release, members of the student staff have also been invited to work in other areas of Dining Services.
'It was necessary to take this step so that Kirk could select his own team to bring the Skyroom up to the level where faculty, staff, students and guests will wish to dine,' Dean Wright, director of Dining Services, said in the news release.
'We didn''t let them go,' Hansen said. '''Reassigned'' is the way it really should be said.'
But some student employees were concerned the change was handled inappropriately.
'They fired us unprofessionally. They didn''t give us two weeks,' said Crystal Wray, a Skyroom employee.
Wray said the staff was initially discouraged from re-applying for positions.
'We were told that they felt like the staff was very inefficient, and they wanted to start all over with new people, which is why we thought we wouldn''t be hired again,' Wray said.
Jeremy Wengreen, another Skyroom employee, also left the June 18 meeting with concerns.
'It seemed very abrupt, especially for those employees that had been working here for a long period of time,' he said. 'I''d been working here for two and a half years. And we weren''t even given two weeks notice.'
Wengreen said he initially feared the Skyroom would become a faculty buffet. He also thought the catering job Dining Services offered to Skyroom employees did not offer a comparable income.
'I feel more reassured about what''s happening in the Skyroom,' he said. 'I was just apprehensive with another leadership change.'
Like Wengreen, Wray said she now feels less apprehensive about the change than before. She said Dining Services later encouraged student employees to reapply for positions and offered to help employees find other jobs within Dining Services.
Hansen said everybody is welcome to apply for a position on the Skyroom staff, and that former employees are encouraged to reapply.
'We never felt like it was an inefficient staff,' Hansen said. 'If that''s what was conveyed to them, that was absolutely not correct.'