This semester, the West Dining Hall was repurposed. Previously a backup dining hall used only during the monthly maintenance of the East Dining Hall, the Office of Student Life and a task force of students have sought to redesign the space for student use.

The idea for the project originated from student feedback stating that there are very few spaces on campus that are truly exclusive to students.

“You can point to a lot of spaces on campus and say students can be together … but there was not a space that was truly dedicated to all students and that was equally accessible to all students and that’s what we hope this really will become,” said Victor Lindsay, Associate Director of Student Activities.

“The Office of Student Life has many student spaces across campus that are overused. For example, the Baraha is a student space, but staff and professors and their kids use it,” said Vuk Vukovic, Class of 2019 and a member of the initial student task force.

The West Dining Hall is now exclusively accessible to students, with some exceptions. For health, safety and maintenance purposes, a very limited number of staff have access to the West Dining Hall. In order to ensure that unauthorized members cannot access the space, key card entry is now required.

The students involved in redesigning the space were limited to making minor structural modifications to the space. Therefore, most planned changes for the West Dining Hall are to the decor. As of now, most changes have been aesthetic: reupholstering old furniture, buying new furniture and painting the walls. But the plan is for the space to evolve and develop over time through student initiatives.

The intention is for the West Dining Hall to continue primarily as a food venue. Currently, only breakfast is served, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekdays, which can only be purchased using Campus Dirhams. There are also plans to relocate a pizza oven there for room delivery services to be managed from the West Dining Hall. In addition, there are plans to have food services late at night, after the East Dining Hall closes.

“The idea is to have a variety of different food options, so that D1 really stands out from D2,” said Vukovic, referring to the West and East dining halls, respectively.

Previously, the West Dining Hall had been used one weekend per month while the East Dining Hall underwent monthly maintenance and cleaning. By relocating late night food delivery to the West Dining Hall, maintenance in the East could be carried out at night, after closing.

Some students raised concerns that converting the West Dining Hall into a student space would make it difficult to expand dining operations as the student population grows in size. However, ADNH Compass has determined that for the foreseeable future, the East Dining Hall should be able to handle the foot traffic of the student body, such that the West Dining Hall will not be needed as a dining hall.

“Part of the concept behind D1 from the very beginning always included food,” added Lindsay.

With room delivery services relocated to the West Dining Hall and late night food options available, eventually some of the pressure on the East Dining Hall should be alleviated.

“Something we are really trying to accomplish with this place is [to dedicate it] to events that allow us to do some really cool stuff with lighting and sound, creating this really dynamic space for students, that we can customize for them,” said Lindsay. So apart from being a recreational space, the West Dining Hall is also meant to be an event space.

As of yet, the space does not have a name. Last semester, Vukovic posted on the Facebook page NYUAD Student Life, asking students to suggest names for the space. The idea was for the name to serve as a theme to guide the decor. However, the student task force never reached a consensus on a name.

This year during Marhaba Week, first year students were asked during a scavenger hunt to suggest names for the space. Until a name is agreed upon, Lindsay calls it the Student Union.