Hope Hall residents got a special Valentine’s Day gift this year. On Feb. 14., the residence hall finally succeeded in installing a new ice machine. The ice machine currently sits in the kitchen lounge, waiting to be used by students.

PROCESS

Gabrielle Morris, Hope Hall’s Student Government Association senator, addressed the ice machine during routine meetings with facilities management.  

“In SGA, we are put on certain [Administrative Partnerships]… where you work side by side with staffs or facilities at Biola. I happened to get Bon Appetit as well as facilities,” Morris said. “All of us have meetings either weekly or monthly with them. And I knew right when coming in to my job that Hope Hall really, really wanted an ice machine.”

Morris initiated the request, but the process took time.

“For the first week, I went around and said, ‘Do you guys want an ice machine? I’m [going to] make that happen,’” Morris said. “It was kind of a promise which at first I really wasn’t sure. But I [wanted] to give one for them and that’s the drive for me.”

Facilities management assistant director Beverly Cain also helped guide the steps to the installment.

“Beverly was so open to the idea and, like I said, [the ice machine] had been asked about for a while. But they had not gotten around it or it was just a big proposal,” Morris said. “Beverly was very helpful, which was super nice, and had brought it to the Auxiliary Services where they had offered to pay for the ice machine.”

Since Alpha Hall holds an ice machine, facilities management determined it would be fair and rational to place one on the other end of the campus.

“I priced the installation out and requested funding from Auxiliary Services and it was approved,” Cain said via email.

Morris emphasized the hard work that the facilities management had put in.

“It took a while, because it got approved for funding in December… or November. Facilities has been so busy with all the new projects on campus. But they put it in February 14, I believe. It was like a Valentines gift,” Morris said.

BENEFITS

Morris named the ice machine “Mr. Icy” for Hope, where it is currently located on the first floor kitchen lounge.

“A good selling point for [the ice machine] was also that there’s a lot of athletes in this dorm—just like the baseball field nearby, tennis and intramurals,” Morris said. “It’s just easy access for let’s say an accident. [Students] can get ice from [Hope] compared to upper campus where they have Eagles Nest and Alpha Hall. Now every single part of campus kind of has an ice machine.”