CSB+SJU Thanksgiving dinner should be in the Great Hall

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to celebrate my fourth CSB+SJU Thanksgiving dinner alongside fellow Bennies and Johnnies.

Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and it is always wonderful to see the campus community come together and connect over a delicious meal. However, I couldn’t help but reflect on how different this year’s dinner looked compared to my first-year experience.

I fondly remember my first Thanksgiving dinner on campus; finding my seat beneath the magnificent arches of the historic Great Hall and being serenaded by the talented voices of the St. John’s Choir just before the line of food service workers, monastics and administrators burst onto the dining floor sporting tightly tucked aprons and carrying gleaming golden whole turkeys to the head of each table.

Most of all, I remember asking my peers, “could you please pass the stuffing?” as we shared each dish in a warm family fashion while a senior student stood at the head of the table carving the turkey and serving a slice to each plate.

This year was the 41st annual campus Thanksgiving dinner, but the setting of a high school gymnasium and the impersonal buffet-style lines leading to platters of pre-cut turkey represent significant erosion of a storied St. John’s tradition. It has occurred to me that my cohort of graduating seniors will be the last students to remember this intimate and family-focused version of Thanksgiving dinner.

The dinner was moved from the Great Hall to the Refectory in 2020 and then to Guild Hall in 2021. At the time, many of us were willing to accept the necessary adaptations to the tradition as we recognized the inevitable impacts of the COVID pandemic. However, once our campus largely returned to its pre-pandemic norms this year, I had hoped we would return to celebrating this evening as it once was.

The reason to continue offering the meal in the new format has not been clearly communicated to the students. An article by Frank Rajkowski, posted on the University’s newsroom webpage, suggests that the changes had to do with the preferential option for an open seating format in Guild Hall.

I have also heard students and faculty speculate that the Guild Hall location and the corresponding buffet-style dinner are necessary due to strained staffing levels within SJU Dining Services. If this is in fact the case, I certainly understand how staffing levels are a significant logistical obstacle. However, I would also like to point out that Bennies and Johnnies have put up with decreasing Dining Service options due to staffing demands over the past few years, including decreasing Sexton and McGlynn’s dining hours as well as infrequent availability of the international food line in the Refectory.

Students have endured these changes on a daily basis, but with these small inconveniences in mind, is it really not possible to offer the full Thanksgiving experience for a single November evening? It is my hope that SJU Dining Service and relevant administrators understand the impact and atmosphere of the once great Thanksgiving dinner, and that they work to protect this tradition at all costs so that future students will have the opportunity to experience the familial CSB+SJU Thanksgiving dinner as I remember it.