Wall Street Market to reopen, be managed by students
Oswego, N.Y. — Just like the leaves, many things are going through some changes on SUNY Oswego’s campus. One change has students worked-up –- the shut down of the Wall Street Café in Rich Hall.
“I really loved that cafe. I always went and did homework, got a drink and a croissant in the morning usually was my breakfast half the time. Sad to see it go,” said senior business student Eli Hokey.
“Having two classes at Rich and working at Lee Hall I’m on this side of campus the majority of my day,” said Liz Shmitt. “So not being able to go to the Wall Street Cafe and get a cup of coffee you know I’m pretty damn mad like, I’d like a cup of coffee.”
Executive Director of Auxiliary Services Stephen McAffee, an MBA graduate of SUNY Oswego, has been working to re-open the cafe, with a twist — it will be completely managed by students.
“So it came out of a discussion when I notified the School of Business, they asked if I considered an alternative and that was, ‘Could the students actually run the facility and could we make it into a living laboratory for them?’” said McAfee.
Step one for Mr. McAfee is to present the written proposal to the board of directors this Thursday, which will initiate a three month trial period where the board will pick seven students to represent the general manager, entrepreneurship, marketing, management, finance, accounting and human resources.
How can students be a part of this change?
“I’ll say elective, but it will be an upper division selective. You’ll submit your application and you’ll be interviewed by the Dean for your chance to be a part of this for the academic piece,” said McAfee. “It’s a way to earn some money in your building and I had a couple other Deans ask me ‘So can we talk about doing this in my building?’ Let me get the School of Business up and running before we get to those others.”
If everything runs smoothly, the students of SUNY Oswego can expect the Wall Street Café to fully reopen for the spring semester.