Lapo Art

Matthew Ramirez

Public Art

Interview for Project 3

Interview with Chad Simchak

(I have cut several unimportant and general parts of the interview)

Me: So the point of this interview is to get some type of insight into the inner workings of La Posada cafeteria from a management’s perspective.

Chad: Ok then. What did you want to know?

Me: Well I have explained the project to you. Do you have any specific insight as to what people would enjoy seeing as an art project in Lapo?

Chad: By people do you mean the students or the employees?

Me: Well I had just people in general in mind, I suppose but now that you mention that, why would it make a difference?

Chad: Students would get a kick out of anything funny, you know? Put a little joke or something like that and they’ll enjoy it. But I think the employees wouldn’t really get that much out of it. I mean of course they’ll laugh the first time they see it but to be honest, it would get old really fast.

Me: Well what do you think employees would like to see then?

Chad: They don’t get a lot of appreciation around here. I mean of course no one works for glamour or whatever but let’s be real. They don’t get paid a ton of money and come here every day to hear students complaining how terrible the food is and how much Lapo sucks. We keep the morale up because it’s like a family here but it isn’t very encouraging messages we get from the students.

Me: So then you think something more encouraging or inspirational or something like that?

Chad: Yea. Maybe just something from a student that says: “Hey we appreciate you. We know what you do for us and we’re grateful.” You know, no one ever knows that we work till 12 am on a usual work night working 8 hour or more shifts. No one knows how much we bust our asses to keep this place running smoothly. All we ever get complaints; about the food, or why we weren’t open longer during spring break, or why we don’t do late night anymore. You know when we did late night last year we closed at 11 and didn’t get out of here till 12:30 or 1 am? We have students working that have 8 – 9 am classes.

Me: Hmm that might be a good idea. I guess I’ll think about it for a couple of days.

Chad: you might want to get a few students to sign a couple of them as well. That would really get the message across.