The grant, which comes from the Higher Education Capital Match Program (HECap), is the second one of its kind that the University has received for the Campus Center.

It will help fund the ongoing transformation of what has become a vibrant hub for the Rose Hill campus since it opened last year.

The Heartbeat of Campus Life

The center, which nearly doubled in size when the 71,000-square-foot addition was finished in February 2022, features multiple spaces dedicated to making the campus a welcoming place for all. 

A first-floor lounge features a pool table and plenty of couches and chairs for relaxing, while the ground floor has additional spaces to gather, recharge, and exercise in a state-of-the-art 20,000-square-foot fitness center.

The upper floors are occupied by the offices of Career Services and the Center for Community-Engaged Learning, while a light-filled arcade that opened in August makes for seamless traveling to the athletic facilities. The building is also designed to LEED Silver level specifications, with triple-glazed windows, automatic lighting controls, recycled materials, and, in a first for the Rose Hill campus, heat recovery mechanical ventilation wheels, which reuse the building’s heat in cooler months.

Dining in the Age of Customization

When the new Marketplace opens in the fall, it will feature nine different stations, covering cuisine ranging from halal, deli, and grill to pizza, salad, vegan, allergen-friendly, and dessert.  

One of the most dramatic changes will be the way dishes will be prepared directly in front of customers. 

As an example, Deming Yaun, university dining contract liaison, noted that at the vegan/vegetarian station, the centerpiece will be a large, oval kitchen stocked with ingredients that are washed, prepped, and cut as needed for every dish, some of which will be sent to decks of ovens in a nearby kitchen to be “finished off” and returned. The Halal/Za’atar kitchen, for instance, will feature dishes such as Mansaf-stewed lamb with yogurt and mint, salmon in fig leaves, and grilled beef and lamb skewers, all prepared in the open.

This allows for customized dining that students expect.

“Over the years, we have been moving food preparation into or as close to the serving area as possible, but this takes it to a whole new level,” he said.

A Hub For Community

The new Marketplace space will be more than just a place for sustenance. Michelle Burris, interim vice president for student affairs, said she expects it will become as much a locus of activity as the rest of the Campus Center. 

“We refer to the McShane Center as almost the living room of our campus where students can gather,” she said. “A fully renovated Marketplace is going to make it even more of a destination for students not only to eat but to be in community with one another.”

Lesley Massiah-Arthur, associate vice president of the Office of Government Relations and Urban Affairs and special assistant to the president, said community building was key to winning the grant, which was awarded in September.

Massiah-Arthur, the author of the grant application, said a grant of this size is only distributed to projects that benefit the broader public.

“I was thinking about how the University was coming back from the pandemic, and I started to think about the importance of food and dining together,” she said. 

As such, Massiah-Arthur cited not only an academic study that showed the benefits of communal dining but also highlighted how a dining facility will make it easier for Fordham to host outside groups for gatherings where food will be served. Next year, for example, the Bronx District Attorney’s office will be hosting a two-day forum at the Campus Center with other U.S. Attorneys General on gun violence prevention.

“Being able to open up the University again is essential to who we are not only as a university but as an anchor institution for the region,” she said. 

Benefiting the Environment and Local Economy

Even before it opens, the renovation will have a positive economic impact on the Bronx. It will generate approximately 250 union jobs over the course of the contract, and 25% of those jobs will be filled by local businesses.

The university will also work with local businesses to implement a new waste management system. All disposable containers will be fully compostable, and working with Bronx-based businesses to meet its composting goals,  Fordham will divert approximately 230,670 pounds of food waste a year from landfills.

Where Friendships Form

Ben Medeiros, FCRH ’22, a student in the mental health counseling program at the Graduate School of Education, was commuting to the Rose Hill campus when the McShane Center opened last year. It was just long enough a walk that he preferred to stay on campus between classes.

“I didn’t want to walk home every day after class. I thought, ‘Let me just chill here before my next club meeting.’ You want to get out of your dorm room or your apartment and sit there,” he said. “I made better friends there than I ever did anywhere else.”

—Additional reporting by Chris Gosier.

The plan is timed around the closure of the McShane Campus Center’s Marketplace cafeteria, which will shut its doors Columbus Day weekend to prepare for a top-to-bottom gut renovation.

Billed as a bridge to a radically different approach to dining that will culminate with the new Marketplace facility in fall 2024, Destination Dining will expand current dining facilities and add eight new ones, bringing the total number of options to 14.

The biggest addition, which opened on Sept. 19, is an “All You Care to Enjoy” facility at Faber Hall’s Bepler Commons, with seating for 96 indoors and 192 in an adjacent tent. It features hot and cold stations with options like omelets, pasta, grilled items, and a salad bar. A second similar facility with seating for 486 will open Oct. 10 on the second floor of the McShane Center.

The University has also added two electric food carts, a new “Grab N Go” spot, and a bagel shop.

Mobile Dining Options

This fall, a 30-foot “CHOMP Truck” offering everything from grilled cheese and poke to gyros, egg sandwiches, and donuts will arrive and shuttle between three spots on campus. A three-wheeled “Bronxie Bike” stocked with snacks will also be dispatched around campus later in the fall.

The university is also expanding two existing facilities: Two heated tents capable of accommodating nearly 300 diners have been installed next to the Starbucks at Dealy Hall and Cosi at Campbell Hall.

Maintaining a Sense of Community

Michele Burris, interim vice president for student affairs, said creative new concepts like the CHOMP truck and coffee carts will likely stay even after the newly renovated Marketplace opens.

Burris also noted that the University will tweak operations as necessary to make the facilities appealing as places of community as well as sustenance.

“It’s like at your home when you gather with your family. That’s what the dining facilities become here at Fordham. It is where people spend time getting to know each other,” she said.

“We didn’t just set up dining venues where you run in, grab your food, and go, so we’re going to be as flexible as possible. If we notice, for instance, that we have more demand in one place than another, we’ll adjust whatever we can as we get used to new traffic patterns.”

A Focus on Trends and Preferences

Deming Yaun, University dining contract liaison, said the new facilities are meant to be a step forward.

“These had to be set up to serve the students with the needs that they are bringing to campus today, the trends they’re interested in, their own personal preferences for dining—and ultimately provide them with more access to food than they’ve ever had before,” he said.

A Step ‘Even Further’ Forward in 2024

The changes will continue with a completely reimagined dining experience in the fall. The new Marketplace will feature stations where food is prepared on the spot. The salad bar area will feature its own kitchen, prep, and service area, as will a halal kitchen and a delicatessen.

“We’re going from what the Marketplace was, which served us well for 50-some-odd years, to this destination dining, which is a step forward,” said Yaun.

“The renovated Marketplace is going to be a step even further forward.”

Destination Dining at a Glance

Ram Central Station Electric Food Cart: Next to Loschert Hall
Mon–Thu 7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 8 – 10 p.m.
Fri 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
(Weather permitting)

Ram Roadega Electric Food Cart: Next to Walsh Hall
Mon–Thu 7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 8 – 10 p.m.
Fri 7:30 a.m. –  2 p.m.
(Weather permitting)

New Grab N Go BKG Roasters & Sambazon
First Floor, McShane Center
Mon–Fri 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sat–Sun Closed

Self-Checkout
Mon–Fri 7:30 a.m. – 12 a.m.
Sat–Sun 10 a.m. – 12 a.m.

Bronx Bagel Company: Dagger Johns, McShane Center
Mon–Fri 7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

All You Care to Enjoy Dining Hall Hub: Faber Hall in Bepler Commons
Mon–Thu 7:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.

CHOMP Truck
(Coming Soon)
Behind Martyr’s Court: Mon–Fri 7:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Next to Finley Hall: Thu–Sat 10 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Dealy Hall: (Next to Starbucks): Sat–Sun, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

All You Care to Enjoy Dining Hall Hub: Second Floor, McShane Center
(Starting Oct. 10)
Mon–Thu 7:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Fri 7:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Sat–Sun 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.