The Rich N' Pour Cafe -- a new student-led, student-run cafe -- is now open to the campus and community after hard work by students in a SUNY Oswego business class.
During its grand opening on Tuesday, April 11, students talked about everything involved in planning and now running the cafe through their Management 444 course.
Eason Lee of the project's finance committee was proud of the specials that ran and that they had "so many things to offer and give out to the community" at that packed event.
"I'm a part of the marketing team which includes promotion," said junior marketing major Tammy Chen, "and I host the Instagram page and I film videos to introduce the new menus which includes drinks and foods."
"I do a lot of the human resources and it's mostly been staffing this year," said senior human resource management major Michael Saalfrank. "So we've made applications, job descriptions and hired around 21 students to work in the cafe.
"I'm in a finance team, so I work on things like break-even analysis, product pricing, product costing, and daily operational costs," said Lee, a senior human resource management major. "All this is fairly new to me, honestly but I had a blast learning all this."
Learning experience
"I definitely learned to work as a team," Chen said. "Like definitely there's a lot of communication. If one thing goes wrong, you have to trace it down to how to resolve it, not just by yourself but with your partner and just your team in general."
"We learn, I would say a second step in the HR process," Saalfrank said. "In the School of Business, we get a lot of experience doing the first steps, doing the job descriptions but for make-believe companies, and after that first time, that's all it is, you don't get to see what happens after that. This we get to see with, with this project we get to see exactly what happens next."
"I learned so much like communication skills, decision-making and problem-solving," Lee said. "In this field big ones are definitely the key takeaways."
The Rich N’ Pour cafe is staffed by more than 20 student baristas serving up Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters-infused beverages and baked goods. The students in the class interviewed and hired the baristas, selected the menu and proposed the decor to provide a relaxing ambience that can also serve as a welcoming meeting space.
Irene Scruton -- the assistant dean of the School of Business and director of MBA programs -- teaches the course with Oswego alumnus and community entrepreneur Ed Alberts serving as senior advisor. Scruton offered thanks to Auxiliary Services, led by Stephen McAfee, for being such willing partners in helping develop plans.
Hours for the cafe are currently 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, 8:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays.