Students take over operation of Williams Hall cafe

For more than two years, the monolithic corporation Bon Appetit has been taking over the food services on campus. Starting with Penn dining halls in 1998 and moving to the new eateries of Houston Hall, Bon Appetit now controls the lion's share of campus eating options. But still, not all eateries around Penn are controlled by a faceless corporation. In fact, Penn Student Agencies took over management of the Williams Hall cafe from Bon Appetit last summer. PSA took over this venture after the Quad commissary, which they formerly ran, was closed last summer. Bon Appetit agreed to give up the cafe because it is busy operating Houston Market. Director of the newly named PSA Cafe Chris Tenggardjaja said that student-run services such as this are largely overshadowed by the multimillion-dollar corporate retail projects around campus. "A lot of things are happening on campus," the College senior said. "But I think what isn't covered is what students are doing on campus." PSA runs a number of services around campus. In addition to the coffee shop on the first floor of Williams Hall, the organization operates a laundry service, the commissaries in the high rises and also prints the Penn calender. Tenggardjaja also defended Dining Services' decision to shut down the Quad commissary with the opening of the food court in Houston Hall. "If they were to close us out blatantly I would say that was monopolization," he said. But instead, PSA was given the Williams Hall cafe, opened just last year along with the Silfen Study Center. Still, residents of the Quad are not happy with the fact that they now have to leave the complex to get food. And many say the PSA cafe does not make up for the commissary. Tenggardjaja agrees with this, commenting that the cafe "doesn't replace the Quad commissary." The cafe manager also said that in the future, he would like to see another PSA shop in the Quad. "If the option is available in the future, I would like to see a new Quad commissary," he said. However, Tenggardjaja also said that the new cafe is making PSA far more money than the old commissary did. "In comparison to the Quad commissary, we do a lot more business," he said.

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