Humanities and Arts Space: About that Coffee House …
In the comments to this post, Sasha wrote:
Why can’t this come true? JJC, can we start some big petition for a student run, GW affiliated coffee house? Is there really any way of making this happen? … Jokes aside, is there really any of petitioning the school to allot some money toward turning fishbowl, or whatever into a coffee house run by students, that I guess, gives most, if not all of the profits earned to GW? There could be so many fantastic student readings there and the possibilities are endless! Students could showcase their art, etc, etc, etc. I feel so out of the loop and kind of silly not having a GW Coffee House, we just have Starbucks (4?), Starbucks pt.2 in the Marvin Center, ABP…
I did send an email to Helen Cannaday-Saulny, GW’s Assistant Vice President for Student Academic Support Services. She’s the one who is behind the Fishbowl, that forlorn expanse of chairs that sits on G Street. Is that lounge always vacant, or empty of human beings only when I walk by? Admittedly, my strolling tends to be in the AM. Is the space in heavier use during the evenings?
I sent the email on October 24 2008, and a quick check of my inbox shows that as of today no reply or even an acknowledgment from VP Cannaday-Saulny has been received.
My own guess: the Fishbowl is there as a placeholder. Once the university gets more funding for buildings, I predict the lounge will be knocked down and a new “Center for Advanced Policy Studying the Advanced Study of Policy Study” will rise there. Despair not, though: it will have a burrito place on the ground floor, and students will be able to use their meal cards. What it will lack is a place for poetry readings, art exhibits, good coffee, and faculty-student hanging out. Still, I hear that Chipotle has decent guacamole.
