Two student-faculty committees, formed to incorporate student input into the 2001-2002 renovation of Frary Hall, met on Wednesday and Sunday of this past week. The Wednesday meeting, attended by project architect Brian Bloom, Pomona College's project liaison Ignacio Sardnias, a representative from Webb Kitchen conulting, Dean of Students Ann Quinley, and some students, yielded ideas for the new kitchen and serving area. On Sunday a group of primarily the same people met to consider possibilities for student dining accomodation during the renovation.

The physical work will begin at the end of this school year, affecting Frary's cooking and serving areas, and making the dining hall unusable for the entire year. "The area where the food is served and the kitchen will be gutted," Quinley said. "The goal is to make it more modern."

"The current kitchen is horrendously inefficient," Sardinas said, "and a greater range of food choices will be available for food preparation and serving."

The first meeting consisted primarily of discussion regarding food choices, special facilities, space management, and general student concerns.

Student member Anna Motschenbacher '03 reported that the committee discussed such possibilities as "more healthy food, a good salad bar, different specialty foods, having staples such as rice at separate stations, exhibition cooking, wood hearth pizza, fresh baked foods such as bread and/or cookies, and smoothies."

Quinley, who reportedly emphasized a push toward display cooking, asked students if they would want a wood burning pizza oven, similar to the one at Scripps College. Wells Miller '02 opposed the suggestion, saying that such ovens lacked versatility and were large and expensive. He suggested that Pomona's limited resources might be better spent on "another more conventional oven that could also cook things like calzones and lasagna."

Quinley also suggested the possibility of a "signature dish," which would always be available as a "tasty thing to fall back on." Most of the students agreed that it was a good idea, but they could not think of such a dish, other than pizza.

Another student concern was the availability of vegetarian and vegan options. Mike Saffitz '02 said that a grill should be large enough to accommodate both meat and non-meat patties, so that they would not have to be cooked on the same surface. Several students suggested a large salad bar, similar in size to the one at Collins Dining Hall at Claremont McKenna.

With respect to crowding and space issues, suggestions were made to have a number of different stations at which food would be served, allow students to serve themselves from both sides of serving islands, and to put beverage stations in the main dining area.

At the Sunday meeting, Quinley, students, and Sardinas brainstormed ways to deal with the loss of Frary for the 2001-2002 school year. According to Quinley, possibilities included "a system of continuous [all day] dining at Frank, arrangements with other colleges, [utilizing the space where the Coop Fountain was temporarily placed in] Walker, serving dinner in and "bringing in outside vendors."

Article to completed tomorrow.