LandAir Truck
Helps in Transition at Tusculum College
Alongside Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Center on the Tusculum College campus a
gleaming LandAir refrigerated trailer sits incongruously beside the entrance
where ballet students and Tusculum Youth choir members and participants in the
Tusculum College Arts Outreach Program enter the building.
The trailer, on loan from Landair Transport, Inc. since the beginning of the
academic year, serves as the College's chief refrigerating unit for its food
service while the college cafeteria is being renovated.
"We are
more than happy to do this for Tusculum," said David Ball, a member of
the Landair management team who arranged for the trailer to be set up at the
college. "The unit isn't making money for the company, but it is serving
a good cause."
"This unit stays within four degrees of its set temperature, so it is a
good solution for Tusculum," explained John Farmer, western regional maintenance
manager for LandAir. Charley Miller, one of Farmer's service technicians, services
the unit every day or two, checking fluid levels, adding fuel and checking belts
and batteries.
On the side of the trailer, the motto, "On Temp, On Time, Every Time"
is painted in bold lettering. The trailer's timely arrival on campus late in
the summer certainly lent credibility to the claim. In May, just after spring
commencement at the college, the cafeteria shut down for the summer and work
began on its complete renovation. During the summer, Sodexho, the college's
food service provider, was able to use the Doak Elementary School cafeteria
to provide food for summer programs: band camps, Upward Bound, and Elderhostel.
But as the college year--and Doak School's academic year--approached, the cafeteria
project was still weeks from completion.
By mid-August, college administrators began making plans to use the Byrd Fine
Arts Center as an alternative to the cafeteria. The spacious auditorium lobby
was equipped for food tables, and adjacent classrooms were set up with tables
and chairs. But the college was still left with the problem of how to prepare
and store food.
Local business leaders Terry Leonard, Bob Leonard, and Bill Hickerson helped
the college locate a kitchen in downtown Greeneville, where food could be prepared
then transported by van five miles to campus. While that arrangement worked
for newly cooked food, storage of perishable items for 450 hungry students needed
a solution that was closer by.
"We were really grateful when the management team at Landair stepped forward
with an offer to let us use one of their refrigerated trailers," said Robert
E. Knott, president of the college. "That offer really made it possible
for us to consider using our fine arts center for a temporary cafeteria."
The use of a refrigeration unit is only one small piece of generosity to the
college from Landair, Inc. In late October, when the newly renovated cafeteria
is made available to students again, it will be part of a new Niswonger Commons,
named for Scott M. Niswonger, chairman of the trucking company. Niswonger, a
1987 graduate of the college, has given over $5 million to the project, which
includes a sports center, a student center, and renovations to existing facilities.
The completed facility will house student recreational space and offices for
campus life staff, a campus radio station, the newly renovated cafeteria, the
newly completed sports center, which includes the 2,000-seat Alpine Arena, and
classrooms.
"The impact of the Niswonger Commons on the campus will be quite pronounced,"
noted Knott. "Classroom space alone will increase by 21 percent, not to
mention the new facilities for recreation and intercollegiate athletics.