By Megan McCloskey and Taylor Paraboschi

Students were greeted by two life-sized, walking sandwiches, a radio DJ and free sandwich samples if they happened to walk into the newly renovated Netherlands Café Wednesday. Officially opened on Friday, Sept. 5, after a summer of construction, the café features a new coffee shop and a convenience-type store in addition to the Subway restaurant.

“The new café is really convenient to the location of my dorm,” said Stefano Pace, a freshman living in the Delft house.

Other freshmen, not just those living in the Netherlands complex, are also able to benefit from the café because of first-year connections seminars and clusters that have classes in the building. “A lot of freshman who do not live in the Netherlands have classes there, so it balances out,” said Kimberly Doxy, a freshman resident of Colonial Square.

A prominent question considering the somewhat out-of-the-way location is how fair the Subway’s placement is to upperclassmen. Since upperclassmen housing is on the other side of Oak Street, the new subway and coffee shop are not the closest dining locations to the rest of the residence halls. Many feel excluded.

“It’s just not convenient,” junior Patty Kreiser said, “I actually still go to the [Subway] by Dunkin Donuts.”

According to Kreiser, she has not visited the Netherlands since her friends lived there as freshman three years ago. Kreiser goes on to say that something should have been built in a more central location.

Although location is an important issue, the matter of quality service is an even bigger one. Many students seem to suggest that it would be a more viable option despite the location if the quality of the food was better than elsewhere.

Freshman Laura Duffy, a Breuekelen House resident, approves of the location but not the service. “The food is good but the service isn’t,” Duffy said. “The staff is not very efficient, nor are they very nice.”

The efficiency and over all attitude of the staff could be the result of insufficient training and preparation, since it is a new fixture on campus. “The staff is new, and I think they are learning to be nicer,” said freshman Becky Gore, also a resident of Breuekelen House. Gore added that they have to work on perfecting their sandwich-making abilities, since she does not think their product quite compares to the off-campus sandwiches.

(Erin Furman)