University President, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., discontinued the daily a la carte lunch for faculty members in the Senior Commons Room located upstairs in the Danna Center, leaving some surprised and looking for an alternative place to meet.

Wildes informed faculty members by e-mail that after assessing Loyola’s physical plant and its budget, he learned that more than $14,000 was used every year in subsidizing lunches. He said that he wants to redirect the money to classroom renovation and upgrade.

“I have promised to be open and honest in my decisions. One of my responsibilities as president is for how we steward our resources. Space and money are two very important resources for Loyola,” Wildes wrote in his email. “My decision was made, in part,to make the room available to more people by making it available for other events and meetings.”

He also said that the room would now be an excellent meeting place that is equipped for audiovisuals and teleconferencing.

“I think that making the room available, through normal scheduling procedures, and redirecting the subsidy is a better use of our resources for the whole community,” Wildes wrote.

Faculty members, however, are now wondering where they can find an alternative to replace all of the room’s various purposes. Many faculty members used the Senior Commons Room as a meeting place to eat and converse, as well as a place to entertain their classes’ guest-speakers. The room was also used as a place where faculty gathered to learn and practice foreign languages, including Spanish and French. In fact, there has been a “Spanish table” on Wednesdays for nearly 20 years in the room, according to communications Professor Alfred Lorenz.

Faculty sometimes invited Spanish-speaking students to lunch with us or students planning on participating in our summer program in Mexico,” Lorenz said. “Often we brought Spanish-speaking campus visitors such as consuls, ambassadors, business people and faculty at other Latin American universities to eat there with us.”

History chairperson David Moore, the former senate chairman of the Senior Commons Room, said that he wants to meet with Wildes to discuss the situation.

“We were taken by surprise that this happened,” Moore said. “We don’t have a meeting place anymore, so it’s important that Wildes and the faculty work together to see where this will lead.”

According to Lorenz, the decision to close the room has effects on several levels.

“We certainly want him to be concerned about the financial health of the university, but we also want him to be concerned about the morale of the people here,” Lorenz said.