THURSDAY, AUG. 22, 2024 VOLUME 99 ISSUE 1
Million Dollar Designs
Tech enriches student experience with latest investments DINING
Hospitality Services introduces Ol’ Red’s, menu updates By MARIANNA SOURIALL Editor-in-ChiEf
O l ’ R e d ’s i s Te x a s Te c h Hospitality Services’ latest addition to the Wiggins Complex. Formerly Sam’s Place West, the renovated dining hall’s name pays tribute to one of Raider Red’s first names, matching the “spirited” interior, said Alan Cushman, Hospitality Services’ associate director. “It's going to have a full service Chick-fil-A, along with some other really great choices from Mexican food to Italian food, hand-rolled sushi, salads, burgers and Asian food,” Cushman said. “So it's going to really bring a cool variety of dining to that west side of campus.” There will be various seating options, Cushman said, in addition to late-night hours. Ol’ Red’s will be cashless, excluding Chick-fil-A, and Tech discounts will be offered to those with dining plans. Cushman said Hospitality Services hopes the hangout spot will build the Red Raider community, serving as a place for students to meet and connect. Hospitality Services always is trying to match the needs of students, Cushman said, an ideology that prompted the design and menu changes in other dining halls as well. “We took the opportunity this
summer to also renovate our Chick-fil-A at the Rawls College of Business,” Cushman said. “Students that are over in that area of campus will be able to go in there and kind of see a new look to that Chickfil-A.” Meanwhile, The Commons at Talkington Hall will have an updated menu, crafted by Tech’s culinary team. “One of the things that I'm probably the most excited about is Khan’s Mongolian Grill that we'll be opening at The Commons,” Cushman said. “It is an amazing, authentic Asian food location, and it's going to be fantastic.” Khan’s Mongolian Grill joins the new grilled cheese line and expanded mac and cheese line at Just Say Cheese. The Commons also will serve a new Mexican food lineup on the second floor. Cushman said Hospitality Services chose to expand and bring in menu options most popular among students. Hospitality Services uses an annual survey sent to all students to gauge feedback. “We actually run a student advisory committee throughout the academic year, through Hospitality Services,” Cushman said. “This is a committee that meets once a month, and it's kind of a sounding board where we connect with current students, to kind of see
JACOB LUJAN/The Daily Toreador
Students eat at Texas Tech Hospitality Service’s newest dining hall Ol’ Red’s Aug. 21, 2022. Formerly Sam’s Place West, the dining hall features a full-service Chick-fil-A and other restaurants exclusive to Tech.
what their wants and what their needs are.” Hospitality Services’ Instagram, “eatattexastech,” is also a good place to send in feedback, Cushman said. In addition to building renovations, Hospitality is also
rebranding its commuter dining plan under a new name: the Masked Rider Dining Plan. The dining plan will permit a 15 percent discount for its users. Cushman said the rebrand will be made available on Hospitality’s Instagram.
“Hospitality Services is part of Texas Tech University, so we are always trying to reinvest in our dining program and reinvest in our locations to make sure that we are on trend and matching the needs of our student population,” Cushman said.
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING
Laboratories updated after 50 years for undergraduates By MARIANNA SOURIALL Editor-in-ChiEf
JACOB LUJAN/The Daily Toreador
An individual sweeps the floors to prepare the laboratory for incoming equipment in the College of Civil Engineering Aug. 21, 2024.
The Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering completed a $1.4 million undergraduate lab renovation over the summer. With the renovated lab spaces, department chair Andrew Jackson said each undergraduate program will have its own lab to mitigate crowding and sharing of labs. “They're all getting new floors, the walls are being repainted, new lights, because the lights were literally 50-year-old lights,” Jackson said.
The sheetrock that used to enclose the space has been replaced with glass, enabling visitors to see what is happening in the labs. Jackson said he also hopes the redesign will make students feel like they’re in a modern working environment. An additional $500,000 went into lab equipment, Jackson said. “The equipment is going to be all new, modern equipment,” Jackson said. “They're going to be able to get hands-on experience on modern engineering tools, and hopefully these labs reinforce the theories they learn in class.” When designing the labs,
Jackson said the needs of each undergraduate program were taken into consideration. He said the department also wanted to make the labs as interactive as possible. “Rather than have an instructor demonstrate something and 20 people watching, we wanted, like, 12 people to be doing the actual experiment, getting their hands on,” Jackson said. The labs had not been updated in nearly 50 years, Jackson said, and alumni fundraised for 10 years to assist in making this project possible.
LABORATORY
Kinesiology, Sport Management revamp learning spaces By MARIANNA SOURIALL Editor-in-ChiEf
The Kinesiology and Sport Management’s new labs and reconfigured spaces will be available to its students this fall. Sport Management Department Chair Angela Lumpkin said last year, students could see construction surrounding Room 109B.
As of August, the YSPL Sports Performance Lab (109B) now houses a climate chamber. Inside the climate chamber are running and walking treadmills and an elliptical. Individuals may use the equipment in the climate chamber, and once the room is closed, vitals can be measured as they respond to differing temperatures, or conditions,
Lumpkin said. “All you've seen here is over a million-dollar investment by Texas Tech,” Lumpkin said. Part of Tech’s investment went into a cell culture space for cells to grow and live within the Metabolic Health and Muscle Physiology Laboratory, Lumpkin said. “The big hood is literally our cell culture hood, and then the
two stacked pieces of equipment are incubators,” said Alexandra Khartabil, an exercise physiology doctoral student from Irvine California. “We house our cells there so that they grow under optimal conditions.” Additional labs within the college house an anti-gravity treadmill, a phlebotomist station and force platforms for muscle measurement, amongst other
equipment assisting in human scientific study. Lumpkin said renovations for other areas in the college began in fall of 2023. In spring of 2024, walls were removed, and equipment was reorganized throughout the new floor plan. With the reconfigured spaces, Lumpkin said, she’s excited to see the rooms full of students.