For years, many Pace University’s faculty and staff members gathered in the Choate House’s dining room to eat and socialize amongst one another.

However, all good things must come to an end.

Over the summer, the dining room was converted into offices for academic advisers. The decision has left Marie Werner, Associate Professor of  Sociology and Anthropology very upset.

“Many of the faculty felt like it was an only interdisciplinary discussion forum that we had,” Werner said. “I would come in on days that I did not even teach because I just wanted to meet with my friends.”

Werner and the rest of the faculty accidentally heard about this back in March from the Pace food service. However, the administration did not make anything official towards the end of last semester.

Thus, the associate professor put together a committee intended to keep the dining area in Choate. She created a petition with 35 signatures from faculty and staff, who were all against moving the dining room.

Werner and the committee ran into one problem: they did not know who to discuss their problem with.

“If I knew who decided this I would be sending letters to them,” Werner said. “We do not know who the hell is making these decisions. I have not been getting accurate information from anyone.”

The initial plan was the have the new dining room be in the Butchers Suite in the Kessel Student Center, but that did not go over well with the faculty because they felt that that the Butcher Suite belonged to the students and did not want to take that away from them.

So, when the school year began, the faculty and staff had their dining room relocated to Conference Room A & B in Kessel.

Werner admits that since being relocated, even more faculty and staff members have been showing up. However, the new room is much smaller than their previous one.

“It is smaller than the dining room and there is not enough space for all of us,” Werner said. “The new room is a third of the size as the one in Choate.”

Aside from the size of the new dining room, Werner is also disappointed with the new food that is being offered in the dining area, as she feels it is a complete downgrade.

In Choate, faculty and staff could choose from two hot entrees with a open salad and fruit bar, with a sandwich selection and a coffee station. All of this was included in the original $6.99 price.

In Kessel, there is only one option for one hot entree. Werner also notes that if you wanted to purchase a sandwich, salad, or a beverage it would be an additional price unlike in Choate.

Overall, Werner views the new faculty area as “disappointing” and because of that the new room does not have the same feel as the old one. She believes that this is another example of disrespect from the administration.

“It is not good will to manage the faculty in such a way that we are not happy here because an unhappy faculty is not a good teacher,” Werner said. “That has been happening a lot when we lost the environmental museum or when they took a lot of the classroom space especially in Miller and Lienhard.”