One year after opening, Fresno State’s $65 million Lynda and Stewart Resnick Student Union is still without food options.
Dining at the brand new student union has been delayed due to an omission in the building’s construction plans.
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The big picture: According to a report from The Collegian, Fresno State’s student-run newspaper, the proper ventilation systems were not included in the building plans for the three planned restaurants: The Habit Burger Grill, Taco Bell and Toss-N-Chop.
Fresno State Vice President and CFO Debbie Adishian-Astone told the student-run newspaper that the ventilation systems were not included in the base building design because the university had not finalized the needs for the three dining concepts.
The ventilation systems required separate design and construction work after building was completed and signed off.
The backstory: The student union’s dining options were supposed to open with the building in the fall of 2022, but the university repeatedly delayed them due to construction issues.
What we’re watching: Fresno State currently has food trucks on campus to provide dining options until the property ventilation systems are installed in the student union.
- The university expects the dining options to open in early November, according to a notification from Fresno State’s Campus News.
What they’re saying: While the original plans for the Resnick Student Union included accommodations for dining, they did not include the proper venting and ducting that are needed, Adishian-Astone told The Collegian.
- “It only provided shell space and rough utilities,” Adishian-Astone said. “As such, venting [and] ducting required for food preparation needed to be included in the TI [technology infrastructure] design for the build-out of the retail dining area.”
