UNB Campus Renovations and Dining Changes: A New Normal for the Student Body

Students returning to the Fredericton campus have encountered a scenario much different from that of the last Winter.

The convenience store, a reliable spot for commuting and resident students alike, had to be closed due to the renovation of the Student Union Building (SUB). It was for this reason, too, that the clothing store Subtowne encountered the same fate.

Second-year student Thomas Lepper told The Brunswickan that the lack of a convenience store on campus is “inconvenient to both the students and the people who may work here.”

“The convenience store provided energy drinks, noodles, and toothbrushes. These are things that a lot of people value, especially when you’re living on-campus.”

The SUB itself looks different. Furniture had to be moved from the first to the ground floor, giving rise to a new atmosphere. Students can now sit on the cozy chairs that had formerly been on the first floor. Two ping-pong tables were also added to the ground floor, and they are taken, nearly all of the time.

The renovation has brought some issues to UNB students. “I ran into it yesterday. I’m like: ‘Oh, there is a way to walk around,’ because I didn’t want to have to walk all the way outside to catch my bus.”

“I ended up missing my bus because I walked around the entire Student Union trying to find a way around it until I figured there is no way around the construction.”

Lepper agrees that there could have been a better way to go about the closure of the convenience store.

“Like if you leave at least one door opened through [the] main lobby that would be fine, and then renovate the little study room to whatever you want it to be.”

As The Brunswickan reported in April, Sodexo’s contract with the University of New Brunswick would not be renewed. It was replaced by Chartwells, the same company that services UNB’s Saint John campus. The cafés scattered around campus have been overhauled, and so have the restaurants and the marketplace on the SUB.

Thomas Lepper said that change was for the worst: “They have upped the charges for the food, and a lot of it just tastes the same.”

Felicity Murphy, a fourth-year History and Anthropology student, commented on the food services change and how it impacted her life as a resident of DKT.

She said: “They opened the DKT meal hall this year, which was great. It was more convenient, and the food is way better than it was at McConnell Hall.”

“It kind of still sucks down there but in DKT there’s less people so they can actually put effort in it.”