After numerous delays that have significantly pushed back the unveiling of recently renovated Oxfam Café, new owner Tufts Student Resources (TSR) plans to reopen the eatery's doors at the beginning of next semester.
The café, which was scheduled to reopen Oct. 1, has been in the process of transitioning from a volunteer−based nonprofit into a more traditional eatery since TSR took over the café's management in April.
In the meantime, several groups planning to host concerts and events in the café, located in the basement of Miller Hall, have been forced to postpone or cancel their programs due to Oxfam's stalled opening.
TSR president Ali Osman, a senior, said many of the problems which held up the café's opening were largely out of TSR and Oxfam's control. This semester, she said, administrators required that Oxfam be up−to−date with building standards that the café has never before been required to adhere to.
"We are a university space; Oxfam is in a dorm," Osman said. "There are changes being made that TSR isn't controlling and is simply abiding by university policy."
Junior Emily Starck, one of Oxfam's managers, said that complications related to furnishing the café have hampered the project's progress. "The furniture didn't come in until the end of November; the tables didn't come in until two weeks ago. We're still waiting on a pool table," Starck said.
Starck also said that having a small staff coordinating these efforts slowed the process.
"There was also a massive overhauling of supplies," Starck said. "We were trying to figure out with Tufts what we need to do and the kind of policies that need to be in place to open it. We only had a couple people doing it, so it took a while."
Amid the stalled opening, TSR canceled two events this semester scheduled to take place in Oxfam, according to junior Neha Agrawal, a former café volunteer who has been active in the renovation project.
Agrawal said that the TSR board voted that the space was not a suitable venue days before the first event, a concert, was scheduled to run.
"We were willing to clean it up before and after and do whatever we needed to in order to make it happen, but they decided that it wasn't suitable for a show," she said.
Starck said the reason the event was canceled had more to do with publicity. "The TSR board decided that they wanted to have a big, celebrated grand opening instead of having some events trickling in here and there," she said.
Agrawal added that TSR canceled the events partly because it wanted to implement a more structured procedure for booking events. The lack of a specific procedure has made this semester's transition more difficult than it would have been otherwise.
"Right now, we have to talk things out with TSR, whereas before we could pretty much book what we wanted," Agrawal said, referring to the process through which students schedule events in the eatery.
Oxfam Café takes its name from the international non−government organization of the same name, which works to alleviate poverty and promote justice worldwide.
Oxfam workers believe that they will be able to provide a more reliable eatery for patrons when the café opens under TSR's management. In the past, all of the profits from the café have been donated to Oxfam America, and the café has been run entirely by student volunteers. TSR will pay student workers and plans to donate a portion of the café's revenues to Oxfam America.
Under the old system, the café's operations were relaxed to the point of becoming ineffective. "The goal was to provide a reliable service to students," Osman said. "When we had the volunteer model, the opening hours were not reliable. As a result, students felt that they could not really use the space."
Belief that the volunteer−based model was becoming unsustainable prompted the handover to TSR.
"We wanted to figure out the financial aspect to make it more of a legitimate business, to make it more than just a bunch of kids coming in and buying milk," Starck said.
Starck hopes that the renovated space and new management will provide a popular outlet for customers as well as a profitable job opportunity for students.
"We want to make it a space that actually functions," Starck said. "You have to lose some of that idea — the hippy commune atmosphere — but it wasn't working for Oxfam."
Agrawal echoed Starck's belief, saying that when the café opens, it will be a more consistent, reliable café for uphill eating and will offer an alternative to the Rez, another TSR−operated café located in the campus center.
"Oxfam will have a lot more resources; it will be better stocked and open at reliable hours," Agrawal said.
