Chick-fil-A finally graces the downtown campus

Living on the Downtown Phoenix campus can be difficult when it comes down to the lack of food options. However, Chick-fil-A has come to bring a little more flavor to students who complain about the lack of choices on campus on Monday.

Aramark Marketing Manager Krystal Nelson said the organization looks at the surveys and feedback from its students to ensure their happiness. Nelson also said her team listens to what organizations, like Residents Hall Association and Undergraduate Student Government, tells them in order to bring to campus what the students want.

"We are excited," she said. "It's a beautiful store. We've heard a lot of great feedback, and we feel it is a great addition to the dinning hall here."

Frank Smith III, former USG Downtown President and public policy senior, said he was a part of the team with the current USGD president Corina Tapscott a year ago to bring the new restaurant to downtown. He said they listened to student complaints about the lack of food options in their program "Slice for Advice."

"It's a little cheesy, pun intended, but we would give a student pizza if they gave us advice for what they wanted to see, and this came from that," Smith said.

You said you wanted more food options on campus, and we listened! Chick-fil-A is NOW OPEN in the first floor of Taylor Place - M&G accepted! Open Monday - Saturday 10 am to 10 pm
Posted by Undergraduate Student Government Downtown [USGD] on Monday, March 21, 2016

The space where Chick-fil-A now stands used to be a den where students could watch movies, play pool, games and more with other Sun Devils. Smith said that with everything, there will be students who are upset by decisions as some did show disagreement with the removal of Devil's Den for the new restaurant.

However, he said there was an overwhelming desire by students who wanted somewhere new to eat on campus and a lack of students using the den.

"When talking with the students we always hear, 'We want more food options, we want more food options,'" Smith said. "We ended up deciding to just talk to students so we conducted a survey of what they want. The top response was Chick-fil-A."

Business freshman Jeremy Farina said he's excited to have somewhere to go once the dinning hall closes at 9 p.m.

"I think Chick-fil-A is definitely a good addition," he said. "It's been kind of bland. If you come out after the dinning hall closes, there's really only Devil's Greens."