Avid coffee drinkers could see their routine come to a grinding halt when Highland Coffees closes its Northgate location at the end of the semester. Students and faculty are reacting and adjusting to the loss of the off-campus staple.
A petition on Change.org by MPA candidate Peter Jenkins asks students and faculty who will miss the camaraderie and convenience of the 25-year-old coffee shop to show their support and petition for the real estate company to keep the business open.
“I guess you could call me a passionate customer,” Jenkins said. “I’m really just trying to see what the feel of the support is.”
The petition is targeted at Saurage/Rotenberg Real Estate. Saurage is a member of the family that owns the prominent Louisiana Coffee empire Community Coffee, according to the Saurage/Rotenberg website.
Jenkins said the petition is seeing the support of customers from Highland Coffees’ 25-year existence. At the time of print the petition had 3,300 signatures.
Monday, students in the School of Music expressed their dismay over the coffee shop’s closing; the short walk makes it the perfect place to meet with friends and professors, said music performance junior Laura DeMouy.
DeMouy said it’s a Tiger Band trumpet section tradition to bring Highland Coffees to home game warm-ups – a tradition that will have to stop if the petition doesn’t sway realtors.
Shelbey Ledet, vocal performance junior, said Facebook has helped spread the news to music school graduates as far away as Michigan, adding they were just as shocked as locals.
“It’s like a knife to the heart,” said music graduate student Chelsey Geeting, who drops by between classes. Geeting said she never worries about being late because of the employees’ speed.
“The line can be out the door, and they’re still fast,” Geeting said.
But students aren’t the only ones who have made a home at Highland Coffees. School of Music professors have turned it into a “de facto faculty lounge” said Stephen Beck, the school’s associate dean.
Beck said the classical music playing in the background is an added bonus to professors who hold classes in Highland Coffees when they want a change of scenery.
Many students got the news of Highland Coffees’ closure from professors on Monday, only to see them there after the day’s classes.
Taylor Darrow, communication studies senior, will miss it as a place to meet with professors. She said its near-campus location kept discussions from being awkward.
Beck said it was a comfortable place to meet with students and discuss everything from information they need to subjects they are interested in.
To many, the atmosphere is something that can only be found at Highland Coffees, and even if it reopens elsewhere, some of the appeal will be gone.
Kenneth Zielewski, mechanical engineering senior, said he is disappointed about the closure of his favorite, laid-back go-to place.
“I’m not even the biggest coffee guy,” said Zielewski, “I go there mostly for the social interaction.”

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Emily Brauner

Highland Coffee, located at 3350 Highland Road, is set to close on December 24.