Jocha Gordon would rather eat anywhere on campus besides Dunn Hall.
However, her options have been limited over the past few weeks because the card reading machines in the Jaguar Express have been out of order.
“It sucks because I’d rather eat in the union any day,” said Gordon, a freshmen majoring in secondary education from Baton Rouge.
As of press time, Gordon and other Southern University students can once again use their student meal cards in The Jaguar Express, Smith-Brown Memorial Union’s food court. “It’s about time,” said Alexandria Coleman, a senior majoring in education from Saint Martinville. It’s been at least a month of school. I really just prefer to get my $150 back.”
Since January 28, Jaguar Express’ systems have been down– unable to serve hundreds of residential students whose meal plan includes $100 to $200 to use at fast food favorites such as Chicken Shack, Montague’s Deli and Pizzeria.
According to Sandra Ellis, campus dining unit clerk, power outages on campus knocked the system offline.
“It didn’t limit the students, they could still go to both dining halls. We’re in the process of getting a new system,” Ellis said.
Not all students agreed with the choice of only being able to eat in the dining halls and the problem also affected the employees of Jaguar Express.
“I felt bored and stressed,” said Donnell Harrison, an employee at Montague’s Deli. “I am glad the system is back up.”
During the system failure, students who didn’t opt to eat in Mayberry or Dunn forked out the cash and ate at McDonald’s in the union. “We have seen more students eating here due to the situation,” said Sheryl Williams, a McDonald’s employee.
Student and Montague’s Deli employee Danielle Wilson knows how it feels to be on both sides of the problem.
“I’m a student too,” Wilson said. “I didn’t like when the system was down, so I know how students felt. I’m just glad that everything is back up and running.”
