Community Café opens its doors at Northern Virginia Center

With a snip of scissors, the Virginia Tech/University of Virginia Community Café officially opened its doors earlier this week at the Northern Virginia Center (NVC) in Falls Church. The Café, located on the first floor of the Center, occupies the space that housed the bookstore until last spring. It has been renovated and attractively designed as a meeting place for the entire graduate school community.

David Trauger, associate dean for the National Capital Region and director, Northern Virginia Center, and Robert Linder, deputy director, University of Virginia, NVC, did the honors of cutting the ribbon at the Café entrance and told the group gathered there how the two universities worked closely together over the last few months to make the Café a reality.

"The Café is a key building block to enhancing our graduate education community. It sets the tone for a common space where faculty, staff, and students can get together for informal conversation, studying, and friendship," Trauger said during the reception that followed the ribbon cutting.

Tables and chairs from the lobby area on the first floor have been moved to draw people into the Community Café. Other comfortable couches and chairs have been added. A large television is mounted in front of and above a rounded counter with stools. At the back of the Café are two commercial microwave ovens and a large stainless steel sink. Electrical outlets are available for plugging in laptop computers and the space is WIFI-ready.

A number of students were found conversing and using the vending machines in the Café the evening it officially opened. Alex Singer, a Commonwealth Campus student in the MBA program said that he will be frequenting the Café before his evening classes because "it is a good place to study and grab some dinner between work and school.

"I think it a very good use of the space vacated by the bookstore," Singer said.

On Thursday, October 29, the Café will host a broadcast of the Virginia Tech/University of North Carolina football game, the first scheduled graduate community event to be held there.

Trauger said that the Community Café will be open any time the NVC is open because it is now an integral part of the facility.

Posted October 22, 2009