Baldwin Wallace University has closed Lang Dining Hall this year due to high maintenance costs, the university announced in an email to the students.
Senior Vice President of Operations, Greg Flanik, said “[due to] the cost and the number of students who would benefit from [Lang], we weren’t going to get the most bang for our buck.”
Lang Dining Hall was one of the many dining options at Baldwin Wallace and mainly visited by students residing on North campus. However, issues with the limited kitchen space, floor renovations, seating, and handicap accessibility led to expenses that contributed to the ultimate closing of the dining hall. “Piecemealing it together to keep it up to code is actually a more expensive proposition than just gutting the whole dining hall and starting over,” Flanik said.
The administration is optimistic about future dining options for BW students. With the closing of Lang comes a plan to upscale dining options on campus for the community altogether. Flanik mentioned that BW was also looking at selling real estate on Front Street and Bagley to a partner to open two new retail-style locations and lending the Lang basement to “boutique options.”
“I do see an opportunity for a second dining option to reappear on North campus. What makes sense to us,” Flanik said, “is if we enhance the robustness of North Campus, putting a dining hall in the back of Findley, or the library… making it more accessible and bigger.”
In addition to the new possible dining locations, Flanik commented on the possibility of a new meal plan option on campus, a “platinum plan” which would allow students to “come anytime [they] want and get whatever [they] want,” without needing to use any meal swipes.
None of this comes without having to make some cuts first, Flanik said, as he continued to stress the importance of student involvement and feedback in all the developments and changes across campus that are to come. “Talk to our dining team. If there’s something [students] want to see, they’ll listen to it. One of the things I think students don’t realize is their voice is important in this.”
