Unexpected demand causes lengthy waits for some Junction House customers
As the student body enters its first round of midterms, many hungry students have had plenty of time to test the newly renovated Douglass Houghton Hall Junction House. In previous years, the dining hall at DHH has remained identical to those in McNair and Wadsworth Hall with a buffet-style dining experience. Announced at the end of the last academic year, DHH’s dining space now features a system based exclusively on customizable pick-up orders.
The new system was first advertised as an alternative to the “tap in, dine, and leave” model and as a solution to missed meals amid tight class schedules. Utilizing the Boost Mobile app, students can choose from a few select options, like rice bowls, sandwiches, or pasta. This allows for a quick and customizable meal, optimally made and served in minutes.
One noticeable issue of the Junction House is that the system is currently inaccessible by HuskyID tap to commuter students. Second-year Data Science student Karman Sandhanwalia expressed, “As a commuter myself, I haven’t been able to get food here with the dining plan I have… we’re paying so much money for it.” During an orientation resource fair in August, directors from HuskyEats told students that an external door is planned for the Junction House at DHH, which in turn will allow orders from commuters.
Despite commuters being unable to eat at DHH in the short term, many on-campus students make it their daily meal “hotspot”, sometimes even ordering for all three meals of the day. Of these regular visitors, many have one major complaint; that being the difference between scheduled pickup time and the actual pickup time. Cassidy Gilliam said that she “doesn’t like when it says [her] order will be ready at 11 and it comes out at like, 11:40.” Gilliam is not the only student who has experienced this, as a decent number of students described the wait times as “unusually long.” “I got an hour and twenty minutes… I expect to get food… I’ll order it, and it’s like ‘“hey, your food will be ready in four hours,’” explained Patrick Hayden, with an exaggerated take on the issues of time constraints.
With wait times and missing order elements being a common problem, there have been many complaints; however, there have still been many satisfied students. Eliseo Tovar said, “I haven’t had an issue with any parts of my order being missing”
A kitchen supervisor at DHH Junction House stated that prior to opening, Junction House “did not expect” such a “high volume of orders.” He also described the digital system present at the Junction House as “not interconnected,” forcing staff to yell out order numbers and content to each other throughout the kitchen.
To find more information about the new DHH Junction House, visit dineoncampus.com/MTU/dining-at-douglass-houghton-hall.
