Whispers Café expands South Campus dining options

South Campus residents now have a centrally located spot to satisfy those late-afternoon and evening hunger pangs with the opening of Whispers Café in Abbott Hall, home of the Health Sciences Library.

The café, which opened for the start of the spring semester on the first floor of Abbott, is Campus Dining & Shops’ first location inside a university library. It serves freshly prepared sandwiches, snacks and salads, as well as fresh baked goods from CDS’ campus bakery.  It also features the Starbucks We Proudly Serve beverage program, with fresh-brewed coffee, iced tea and coffee, Frappuccino and expresso-based beverages.

The café is open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, and from 1-9 p.m. on Sunday. 

The impetus for Whispers Café came from a focus group created to inform the South Campus Revitalization Study, according to Kelly Hayes McAlonie, director of the Capital Planning Group.

Each school on the South Campus was asked to send five or six student representatives for a South Campus Revitalization Student Council that met three or four times last year, Hayes McAlonie says.

“They gave us a list of things they wanted us to focus on,” she says, noting that food and more study areas topped the list.

Students asked for more dining locations, longer hours of operation for those locations and more variety in the food offered, she says.

In addition to the new Whispers Café, Abbott is getting more study space on the third floor with the removal of some stacks and the addition of some new furniture, Hayes McAlonie says.

The third-floor study area, as well as the furniture and carpeting for Whispers Café, are being funded through the "Small Spaces" (Small Facility and Grounds Spaces) initiative being led by Dennis Black, vice president for university life and services, she says, adding that Campus Dining & Shops installed the kitchen equipment in the café.

These two projects in Abbott are examples of projects “where students asked and we were able to work with multiple groups to make it happen,” she says.