Grace College had a ground-breaking for a $5.5.M remodel of its Alpha Dining Hall on Thursday, April 15. From left: Sodexo General Manager James Bloemendaal, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Laurie Owen, Student Body President Andre Stone, Incoming Student Body President Kiersten Martin, President Dr. Bill Katip, Alpha Hall Resident Director Hannah Navarro, Board of Trustees Member Jennifer Hollar, Chief Operating Officer Dr. Paul Blair, Sodexo Senior Construction Manager Kevin Hogan, Fanning Howey Project Executive Andy Miller and Larson-Danielson Construction Superintendent Travis McDougal. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — A revamp of “a comfortable third space” at Grace College officially kicked off on Thursday, April 15.

The college broke ground on a $5.5 million revamp of Alpha Dining Hall. A small crowd gathered for the ceremony, with it also being streamed online.

Among speakers was Grace President Dr. Bill Katip.

“It’s going to be a comfortable third space as we say to our students often, for students and faculty and staff to gather,” he said, explaining a third space as being where people spend time on a college campus away from their dorms or classrooms.

Katip shared that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the campus to not take gathering together for granted. He talked with InkFreeNews after Thursday’s event of what it will mean to gather in the future at Alpha as the pandemic ends.

“Just to have the space that facilitates the campus gathering, that’s a big part of our campus life here to come together,” he said. “So to have the spaces that facilitate that, that’s really important for us.”

A rendering by Fanning Howey, the architect for the project, of part of the design.

The remodel will allow space for 420 people as opposed to 360 now. There will be more food stations and a larger kitchen and an outdoor dining space.

A new dining station will focus exclusively on serving food for those with allergies and other food restrictions. There will also be a 1,000-square-foot lobby with a fireplace added.

The architect for the project is Fanning Howey, and work is to be done by Larson-Danielson Construction. The project is expected by finished by the start of the 2021-22 school year.

“We’re just thrilled to get it,” Katip told InkFreeNews. “It’s been a long time coming, you know to get the funding in. We were going to do it last summer and it just seemed like we couldn’t, so to see this happen now it’s going to be such an encouragement to our students and to our faculty … and obviously to have something new is going to be great for student recruitment.”

The majority of the cost has been covered by donations thus far. If people wish to donate, they should send funds to the college’s Advancement Office, 200 Seminary Drive, Winona Lake, IN 46590.

Among the people that Katip thanked Thursday were Associate Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Aaron Crabtree for collecting student input.

“They were very instrumental in helping figure out, like we got a bunch of booths in there, it’s not just the old kind of square tables or round tables, but it’s more of a variety, much like the food courts do, so that’s going to be a lot nicer,” he said.

Several students spoke at the ground-breaking. They were current Student Body President Andre Stone and next year’s Student Body President Kiersten Martin.

“As a current student, I’m really excited for the upgrades that we are making here at Alpha Dining as they have been highly requested by students like myself and many others for a long time,” said Stone.

Martin shared how memories will continue to be made in the revamped space.

“A conversation that turned an acquaintance into a friendship, winning a prize while watching baseball on opening day, those are the memories that we’re going to be talking about and this new space allows community life to happen, every single meal, every single day,” she said.

Food has been served in Alpha since Feb. 14, 1964, according to information cited in the Spring 2021 issue of Grace Story, the college’s institutional magazine.

The magazine also notes that Alpha has undergone several changes in the past.

“We’ve remodeled our ‘kitchen’ over the years. There was an expansion in the early ’80s; in 1996, ‘self-serve’ dining was introduced; in 2002, Sodexo became Grace’s dining partner and introduced eating stations; and in 2012, Alpha Dining underwent a small renovation to increase seating capacity and meeting rooms,” it states.