Serving It Up With A Smile
There are a lot of on-campus dining options for Furman students. They can choose from a variety of stations in the Dining Hall (or the "DH" as students refer to it), from hearty home-style cooking to a seemingly never-ending salad bar. If they're in a hurry, they can drop by Einstein's Bagels or pick up familiar fast food and quick grab-and-go options in the Pala Den.
But students quickly find out that meals at Furman are not just about eating. It's a time to hang out, catch up with friends, avoid studying, and simply feel "at home."
When they head through the lines, they find staff like Richard Enloe, who makes it a point to learn as many students' names as possible. He's proud to say he's on a first-name basis with almost all of the 2,400 meal plan participants. Or the women who staff the home-style station and dispense love and laughter along with good food. "I could always count on Ms. Angie, Ms. Jackie, and Ms. Roberta to provide me with tasty food and some good laughs every time I passed by their station," says Erik Franklin '11 (Elgin, SC). "These ladies act like Paladin moms who just want to feed their Paladin babies!"
And there's always Ms. Ruby, a fixture at the cash register for decades, who has been known to let hungry-looking students slide in even after their meal plan had run out for the week. But students like Meg Lacasse '11 (Greenville, SC), a vegetarian, find out that service in the DH goes deeper than a smile. "I requested that rice dishes that don’t contain meat be made with veggie broth instead of beef or chicken to make them suitable for vegetarians," she says, "and they took care of it. That was awesome."
Even in the middle of finals, students linger in the DH and the Pala Den. "The DH is not just a place to eat but a place to see everyone," says Natalie Pike ’11 (Lenoir, SC). "I talk with friends,discuss classes, and escape my busy schedule."
Students agree, it's a great place to find a little taste of home.