Ah, Super Blanch, one of the most hotly-contested topics on our campus recently. Some people love the idea of having a centralized location for dining. Others find the idea deplorable and poorly thought-out. But, love it or hate it, Super Blanch is happening. Though, that doesn’t mean that students have stopped talking about it.
 For those of you who are relatively new to campus, let me give you a summary of what’s going down. Currently, we have a variety of dining halls scattered across campus and Blanchard Campus Center is at the heart of campus. Soon, instead of having many dining halls, Blanch is going to be expanded, its hours extended, and will be the only place to eat on campus as the other dining halls will be closed. The building is going under a $50 million renovation and expansion. The expansion intends to give Blanch more functions, as it will be a location for both dining and socialization. Some anticipated additions to Blanch will include a dining room with skylights to bring the “outside inside,” a recreational area, and a grab-and-go meal station. The construction began over the Summer of 2016, and shall be finished by the Fall of 2017.
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Change of any sort results in controversy. Some students love the idea of centralized dining and what has been dubbed “Super Blanch.” I decided to ask a few Mount Holyoke students to see what their thoughts were on Super Blanch.
“I am excited for it because it means that I can eat later, and it also means that there will be expanded Halal options. If you have eating restrictions, you should be excited,” says Aicha ’19. She also acknowledges that Super Blanch definitely won’t be a utopia. “Basically, I love and hate Super Blanch at the same time. I hate it because I love eating breakfast in my PJs and going downstairs for dinner in my flip-flops. But I understand why the school’s doing it.”
So, it isn’t as though the other dining halls reign supreme in terms of turnout. But, if you happen to like living in a dorm with a dining hall because of the convenience, that benefit will be lost and won’t be possible with Super Blanch.
The problems with Super Blanch extend far beyond simply being inconvenient for some students. Jo, ’19, discusses the darker sides of centralized dining. “I have a lot of mixed feelings about Super Blanch. At 12:30, when I want to eat lunch, I literally can’t move [in Blanch] because there are so many people. [Super Blanch] is a direct contradiction of what the student body asked for, along with the fact that the construction is ugly.” They also go into the accessibility issues of Super Blanch-“Students with physical issues who rely on dining close to their dorm will have very limited options for housing. Additionally, Super Blanch will be incredibly loud and and crowded, making it unusable for people with sensory processing issues.”
Jo brings up very valid points. Even though Super Blanch is supposed to have dedicated quiet areas, just how quiet can they be during meal rush hours? Hopefully the extended meal hours will allow for a less congested environment with people coming at different times. But, we won’t know for sure until the Super Blanch project has been complete.
Even though some of the student body is very unhappy about Super Blanch, the intentions behind the project are certainly good. According to the MHC Alumae Association blog, Super Blanch is meant to help bring the community together. “The shortage of gathering space on campus has been a growing concern for many students, who are in need of space for a variety of purposes.” So, Super Blanch will give us more room to socialize! It won’t just be a place to eat. It aims to be a social center for our MHC community, where clubs can gather or friends can meet up. I think this will be especially valuable once the weather gets colder, as meetups on Skinner Green aren’t as fun when it’s freezing cold outside. The hope is that Super Blanch will help strengthen the MHC community.
Love or hate the idea of Super Blanch, we’re stuck with it. Until it’s finally completed, we won’t know for certain how it will affect life at MHC. Maybe it’ll be a fantastic addition to our campus. Or maybe, it’ll cause stress to the student body. Or maybe, like many things, it will have a collection of both positives and negatives. Only time will tell. In the meantime, we should simply use humor to cope with the current construction that has marred our campus. As Em, ’18 says, “The best part about Super Blanch is that since it’s unsafe to go on the dirt pile, they’re apparently leaving the flag up.” The flag in question being a flag for the Class of 2017. An unknown member of the Class of 2017 decided to climb the dangerous Super Blanch dirt pile, a locational that has since become infamous since the beginning of the semester, and plant a class flag on top. Though it was perhaps a dangerous and unwise move, it’s good to have a laugh when faced with the unknown.
   If you aren’t sure where you stand on the Super Blanch issue, check out this article on the pros and cons of centralized dining!
(Image sources: Cover, 1, 2, 3)
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