This month, the Carmel Cafe is planning to implement new security measures, focusing mainly on crowd control within the cafe, in addition to the security cameras already installed in the establishment. DECA advisers have decided to introduce line dividers in order to control large crowds in the cafe and to allow more visibility for cafe staff. Uredoojo “Uredo” Agada, general manager of the Carmel Cafe and junior, said the cafe staff members are hoping the new crowd control measures will help to create orderly lines in the cafe and allow more efficient customer service.

“We ordered the poles with (dividers) so we’ll have neat lines and we’ll be able to see what’s going on in our lines and we won’t have lines going all throughout the cafe like they have been recently,” Agada said. “I think the crowd control will benefit because the customers who just want a certain thing, like a cookie, can just go into (their) own line and it’s easier for them to get processed. So I think it’ll help with the waiting with how busy it gets. People will be able to get their products and items faster than they’ve been getting them now.”

Another new addition to the Carmel Cafe security this year is the presence of more administration in the cafe to help curb disruption and to keep an eye on students. 

“The supervisors of the cafe, which are kind of aligned with DECA advisers, basically they rotate that duty,” Robert Holman, Business teacher and DECA advisor, said. “It gets pretty crowded in there—usually around 7:30 a.m.—and just to kind of make sure the congestion doesn’t get out of control we just want to make sure the whole operation of the cafe can go smoothly. So it’s just having a little bit of that presence there will help alleviate those concerns.”

Agada said the new security measures in the cafe are meant to follow this year’s trend of increased safety precautions throughout the entire building.

“In general, there’s been a whole movement (of safety) in the school in light of events we’ve had in previous years,” Agada said. “The safety of students is very important to us and we’ve had incidents this year with merchandise and things like that, so it’s really important for us to pay attention to the safety of our customers and we’re following the general trend of the whole school of implementing more safety measures.”

Kathryn “Katie” Sankey, member of the merchandise design team and satellite team for the cafe and senior, said there have been incidents of stolen merchandise in the past. When incidents like this occur, cafe employees are trained to follow certain procedures to ensure thefts are properly reported to administration.

“We have had a couple theft issues (with merchandise), and going about that, every employee is trained on what to do in these kinds of circumstances,” Sankey said. “We have cameras around the cafe and if this were to happen, we take precautionary measures of looking at the camera and then that is all in administration’s hands. We don’t confront the person, we don’t talk to them about it. It’s all with administration and they go about the consequences.”