Despite the decade since Saga Inc. last catered at Hillsdale College, calling Knorr Dining Hall anything but “Saga” still regularly gets freshmen eye-rolled right out of a booth.
The tradition of fondly calling the dining hall “Saga” dates back to the late 90s.
“We called it Saga as well,” Director of Academic Services Christy Maier ’98 said. “It was technically Marriott, which was our food service provider, but we called it Saga.”
According to Chief Administrative Officer Rich Pewe, Saga managed the dining hall before and after Marriot.
The Saga of the ’90s was a different experience from the modern Saga, Maier said.
“One of the greatest things that you have to understand is that there was a hot food line that usually had one or two options. Then if you were lucky, the coldcut line was opened so you could make yourself a sandwich,” Maier said. “If you didn’t like what was in the hot food line and didn’t want to make yourself a sandwich, then you had cereal — that was it.”
Maier described the food during her college experience as “mediocre at best,” although she was fond of the crispy chimichangas. Food is only a secondary quality of Saga, however, and Maier said the dining hall has always been a place for fellowship.
“Saga was very much a place for community, especially lunches because a lot of the Greek houses would come and eat up the hill,” Maier said. “We also had shorter mealtimes so it was rare that you would go to lunch or dinner and not see the majority of the people who were going to eat up the hill.”
Visiting Assistant Professor of English Patrick Timmis ’13 said he could always look forward to lively discussions during mealtimes at Saga.
“Something that I loved about the dining hall was the intra-tradition debates that we had,” Timmis said. “I grew up presbyterian, and I remember arguing with a non-denominational friend on whether baptism and the Lord’s Supper did anything. He was pretty adamant that they did not. He is now a Roman Catholic theology professor — not that I convinced him.”
While mealtimes often include philosophical and theological debate, students also use them to unwind.
“Our dinners usually involve a good deal of swearing, perhaps some foul humor, and then a kernel of meaningful remarks at the very end when we are like, ‘Guys, we have to stop making jokes, we have to take this seriously,’” said senior Sam Schaefer.
Timmis said one of his favorite memories from Saga was when a group of Donnybrook Catholics entered the dining hall with a Vatican flag on Reformation Day.
“In response, St. Paul’s students go over to the piano and start pounding and singing as loud as they can ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God.’ You’ve got this flag waving on one side and ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’ on the other side,” Timmis said. “Father Dave was eating at a table and got up and started singing with them.”
While students often lament Saga as the epicenter of hillsdating on campus, it has also been the birthplace of romance. Maier said rushing to Saga breakfast before it closed was how she befriended her husband.
“I had an 8 a.m. bio lab first thing my sophomore year. It was supposed to be a two-hour lab, but we would hurry up and try to get it done by 9 o’clock so we could run and sneak into Saga before it closed,” Maier said. “That was one of the ways I became friends with my now husband — he was one of my lab partners.”
Junior Maya Goode, who transferred to Hillsdale from Fairfield University last spring, said she immediately felt a sense of community upon walking into Saga.
“The first day I went to Saga by myself because I didn’t know anyone. I bumped into my professor, and he invited me to sit at a table with him and some other professors,” Goode said. “It would never happen anywhere else.”
Goode said she was struck by Saga’s welcoming environment. At Fairfield, she was used to a large dining hall with small tables and chairs and white “abstract” furniture. Saga’s round tables, wooden furniture, and fireplace were a welcomed change.
“At Fairfield you wouldn’t go and sit at some random table and everyone was really spaced out,” Goode said. “At saga you can just sit down. It’s a more welcoming space.”
Goode did say she misses the food at Fairfield. Upon arriving at Hillsdale, she spent most of her time in lunch lines waiting for turkey burgers and salads.
“At some point, I was concerned about my health,” Goode said. “I started to visualize how many turkey burgers I had eaten in the past four months, and I was getting a little nervous.”
Since the construction of Knorr Dining Hall in 2008 and the three food service companies that have managed it, it has largely remained the same.
“That’s probably the most deja-vu place on campus,” Timmis said. “I’ve eaten there since I’ve been back, and I haven’t noticed a difference.”
Timmis said he doubts students will stop calling the dining hall Saga despite new management.
Senior Noah Hoonhout disagrees. He said it is time for Saga to change its name as it is a symbol of the old regime.
“We are going to try to call it The Met,” said Hoonhout. “It sounds more classy.”
Despite Hoonhout’s efforts to break with tradition, the dining hall will likely remain known as Saga.
“It just has this ring to it,” Maier said. “It’s so much easier to call it Saga than it was to call it Bon Appetit, and it’s gonna take people forever to figure out Metz. Old habits die hard.”