From Friday, March 29th to Sunday, March 31st, ODU students experienced an emergency closure of the Broderick Dining Commons, ODU’s primary dining facility.
Students were notified by email on the 29th at 2 p.m. around the time of closure. While the reasoning was unspecified, consensus among both students and workers was that the closure occurred due to the presence of two birds in the rafters of the dining hall.
For several days prior to the closure, two birds were spotted in the same rafters, flying around and chirping at one another. One Broderick dining commons worker, who asked not to be named for this story, speculated that they likely came into the building through a bay door during a regular ingredient and supply restock. However, some students have noted that initially, there was a singular bird before a second one gained access to the building.
After entering the dining hall, the birds were evidently trapped and lacked the means to escape the building. The closure was in large part due to the unsanitary nature of keeping wild animals indoors, particularly in relation to them contaminating food with their feathers and droppings.
As a result of the closure of Broderick Dining Commons, students were forced to relocate to the much smaller Ruby’s Cafe space in the Webb Center in order to use their meal swipes. Many students opted to use their meal exchanges, flex points, or real money to eat elsewhere, as the selection at the Ruby’s Cafe location was limited and generally not considered standard of what they’d come to expect from the university.
Broderick Dining Commons reopened on schedule for breakfast Sunday, March 31st.
