The smooth jazz stylings of HMC student band Jive Overdrive (left) heralded the official opening of the Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons. On hand to cut the ribbon were benefactors (with scissors) Richmond Hoch ’63 and Diane Hoch and Mary Shanahan and HMC Board Chair Michael Shanahan, along with family, friends and the HMC community. The airy, light-filled 28,000-square-foot facility, which began serving meals in June, feeds more than 1,600 diners daily.

Diary of a Mudd Dining Manager

Here’s a peek at the journal of William Casey, Mudd dining’s general manager, as he chronicled the construction of the new dining commons and the move from Platt Campus Center to the new facility.

January 2003 – Meeting with architects included students from HMC’s Food Committee. Discussion focused on the overall atmosphere the students wish to see in their new dining hall. Students hope the dining commons will have a “homey” and comfortable feel to it, plus a lot of natural light. 

April 2003 – Provided with equipment list today. One piece of equipment stands out: a rotisserie oven. No other college among the 5Cs has one.

May 2003 – Looking over the plans and really like the notion that most of the cooking and prep work will be done out in front of the students.

May 2004 – Because of bad weather and some construction delays, the opening of the new building is scheduled for spring break 2005. This makes me nervous because we will only have one week to move and train staff on new equipment. Also, traditionally, with new buildings there are always some glitches. With such a short time frame, there will not be sufficient time to fix the glitches. I called district manager Diane today to ask for advice. Diane assured me that she would contact our other college accounts in the area and get us all the help we would need to make sure we had a successful grand opening.

July 2004 – Building continues to take shape. It is exciting to know we are going to have the best dining facility among the 5Cs.

November 2004 – Concrete has been laid. Went over to the building with Ramona Campoy (assistant manager) and Ruben Vega (chef) today. The building is still a shell but we were able to picture where everything would be.

February 2005 – Looks like building will not be ready. Have been asked how long it would take us to move completely over. There is still hope to get the building open before the end of the academic year.

March 2005 – Have begun taking employees over for tours. The cooking equipment is not in but still you can see how excited the employees are. I find myself walking over to the new building every day now. Starting to make plans in my head.

April 2005 – Carpeting installed today. Looks great! Inside of building looks bigger than I originally envisioned. Seating area is quite impressive looking. We will take over the building on June 1.

May 5, 2005 – Senior reception tonight. The first event held in Hoch-Shanahan. The event went wonderfully. The servery is a perfect spot for catering events.

May 23, 2005 – Today we start moving over equipment and supplies. Planning our first meal for June 1. Kitchen equipment is almost all installed. It all looks beautiful.

May 28, 2005 – Looks like our first meal will now be June 6. Have been turning on the equipment. The new combi oven isn’t working. Salad bar is not what I had originally expected. Hope it will work.

June 6, 2005 – We are open! Did rotisserie chicken and individual pizzas today. They were both big hits. We are on our way.