Between classes, you walk into the dining hall like normal: earbuds blasting music and locked in on whipping up your staple quesadilla from the Tex-Mex station.
A mini plastic cup of hot sauce and salsa, your cheesy quesadilla in one hand and a lemonade in the other, you then luck out, scoring your OG booth. As you begin to sit down, one of your earbuds falls out of your ear onto the floor. That’s when you hear it:
“Never gonna give you up/Never gonna let you down/Never gonna run around and desert you,” Rick Astley sings.
A smile crosses your face. You just got rickrolled by the loudspeaker.
The dining hall has welcomed students back from spring break with jams. Not just the blob of grape spread by the yogurt and granola, but with the smooth tunes of many musical artists.
A quiet dining hall is gone as music now plays through the loudspeaker. Students can add songs to the playlist queue by downloading Rockbot Request on their phones.
Rubin Holland, the Gourmet Dining Services (GDS) Nighttime Floor Manager, said he likes the new feature as it provides the workers with something to listen to while they work.
“It gives the students something to listen to while they’re eating,” Holland said. “If they don’t feel like talking or interacting with other people, they can just listen to the music.”
After downloading the app and creating a profile, students can pick and vote for their favorite songs. The more votes, the faster the song plays. Plus, students can save their favorite tracks on the app, allowing them to play those songs faster.
Isabella Lynn, a sophomore philosophical theology and physics major, said the dining hall’s new feature affects not only current students but also prospective students.
“It’s really nice when tours come in, and they get to experience that,” Lynn said. “It gives a food court vibe, which is kind of nice.”
Songs chosen are filtered to ensure they are clean and university-appropriate. Students can request songs such as “Love Me Like You Do” by Ellie Goulding and “Champion” by Bishop Briggs. Ashley Thomas, a junior forensic accounting major, has a specific artist in mind as a dining hall favorite.
“I like when they play Drake because it’s a nice vibe, not too loud,” Thomas said.
Rockbot has different DJ levels, and students can level up by getting likes on songs. Aside from adding and voting on music for free, students can pay for tokens, which boost their picks to the top of the queue. Holland said he appreciates the DJ factor.
“I also really like that you can actually mess with it yourself, as the DJ role,” Holland said. “A lot of the time you just have to listen to what they play, so to be able to add your own music, I really like that part.”
Holland said the idea for incorporating music in the dining hall came from Ed Mallaney, GDS’s Regional Dining Manager.
“This is something new that we figured y’all would like,” Holland said. “[We] try to throw out new things to entertain y’all.”
For Alisia Sadler, a junior forensic accounting major, and her friends, the transition to music in the dining hall is cool, but a little overstimulating.
“We came back from spring break, and we were like, ‘What is that noise?’” Sadler said. “It was just loud music, maybe if it was a little lower, because sometimes it gets to the point where we can’t even hear each other talk.”
Holland said the music used to be louder, but the workers have turned it down.
“It might be a point where sometimes they maybe don’t want to hear the music at all,” Holland said. “It’s like that one saying: to each their own.”
The poster with instructions on how to request music is on a bulletin board in the dining hall by the pizza section.
Calla Patino is the head editor for The Setonian’s Opinion section. She can be reached at [email protected].
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