Letter to the Editor: Gompei's
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Bill McLaughlin
Class of 2001 |
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Dear Editor, Students, and Administration:
I know I am not the only student who is greatly disappointed in the shape that food services have taken with the opening of the new campus center. Most strongly, I feel the transformation of the restaurant that once was Gompei's is nothing short of a crime.
Of all the places on campus that promoted a sense of community, the old Gompei's was such a place. The small room, dimmed lighting and decor created a place that had a strength of atmosphere greater than any place else on campus. The Grill in wedge and the cart in Fuller where convenient, but Gompei's was special. To the students, it was an institution, a part of the essential character of this campus. A simple change of location would not have destroyed the establishment we all loved.
What has been done, has been to take a place that couldn't be anywhere else but here, and put it on the same level as a common Burger King. Had something been done to construct a place in the campus center building that could be as special to the WPI community as Gompei's had been, that could truly bear the legacy of the Room in Riley. What we have now is just another food stand, with the name of a great place that isn't around anymore. I would ask the administration; bring back the place we knew. Fill the space in the campus center with another option (perhaps the Mexican stand that occupied the Wedge in it's last days). The campus center will grow to become a creator of community, but don't destroy our best example of a common place in the name of engineering a designated one.
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