Murray-Dodge Café Celebrates 50 Years of Free Cookies

There’s something special about the Murray-Dodge Café that goes beyond the enticing sweet scents of freshly baked cookies, though those certainly don’t hurt.

The cozy, dimly lit space in the basement of the Office of Religious Life (ORL) building “felt like home” to Destiny Eisenhour ’20 when she was a student supervisor, thanks to the welcoming community of student bakers and patrons.

Emmie Pickerill ’25, another former supervisor, said it’s “so clear when people walk into the café that they enjoy this space, and I feel like that energy would really just rub off on me.”

This fall, the café will celebrate 50 years of serving free cookies, coffee, tea, and conversation.

The night before it first opened in September 1976, Rick Chrisman ’65 was emotional and worried that his two years of planning would be for naught. Chrisman, then assistant dean of the Chapel, intended to create a space that would welcome all people and foster interaction at a personal level. At a time of political consciousness, campus was “electric and very divisive,” Chrisman said, and he found students “desperate for dialogue,” somewhat similar to today.

Immediately, it was clear to Chrisman that the café he had dreamed up out of a neglected basement was a success. After hosting its first patrons during a three-night freshman week preview, it officially opened a week later, on Sept. 16. It was open from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., in hopes of enticing students leaving Firestone after late-night study sessions.

Today, the café is open during the academic year from noon to midnight. Student bakers make 1,000 cookies per shift, with the freedom to bake anything from classic chocolate chip cookies to whatever they can find in the pantry. Eisenhour experimented with double chocolate red pepper flake cookies. Brooklyn Fraser ’27, a current supervisor, recalled one baker who made a delicious pumpkin, pretzel, and white chocolate chip creation.

The student bakers, who are paid, “come up with the most awesome recipes,” said Joanne Campagnoli-Sismondo, operations and events coordinator at the ORL. She has supervised the café for the past two decades. “I can’t even tell you what they do. … They’re like little scientists down there.”

On Wednesdays, a vegan option is available, and on Sundays, a gluten-free option.

According to Ellen Sheehy ’84, a student baker during the early 1980s, they didn’t offer anything “too fancy” then — “chocolate chip was the norm.”

Since its humble beginnings, the café has undergone a major year-long renovation, during which it temporarily relocated to the Carl A. Fields Center in 2015-16. It’s survived challenges, like mice that kept finding ways in during nearby construction and ORL’s decision last year to staff most shifts with one baker instead of two due to budget cuts.

Over the years, the café has served as a late-night alternative to the Street and a meeting place for clubs. Sue Anne Morrow, a former associate dean of religious life, said that student meetings in the café helped the ORL make some of its first connections with the LGBTQ+ community. When she introduced herself to an LGBTQ+ group, the students seemed confused, “Like, really? Why are you here?” Morrow recalled with a laugh. Over time, though, “we cultivated a very strong relationship with that group of students, and it was really fun.”

At Reunions in May, the café opened an hour early for alumni and student bakers, with generations of workers and their families meeting for the first time. Attendees brought recipes for a new cookbook that Campagnoli-Sismondo and the alumni bakers hope to publish. On its Sept. 16 anniversary, the café plans to celebrate with special pins, a giveaway, and student group collaborations.