Students who accidentally wander onto the top floor of Usdan may find themselves confronted with tables strewn with upside down wineglasses and vases bursting with fresh flowers – and not a single person under 21 in sight. Welcome to the Daniels Family Commons, a dining area and lounge on the center’s third floor – a space where professors can wine, dine and even avoid some of the winding lines that are sometimes present in the student’s dining area downstairs.

Prior to Usdan’s debut, faculty and staff lacked a formal dining space for quite some time. For many years, professors could fill their stomachs in the lower level of Downey House; however, when the building was renovated from 2004 to 2005, the dining room was temporarily moved to a Wesleyan-owned house on Mt. Vernon Street.

“One of the things that Wesleyan lost over the last couple of years was a gathering place for faculty and staff,” said Peter Patton, Vice President and Secretary of the University. “We wanted the Center to serve as a cross-roads for the entire community. The Wesleyan faculty and staff did not have the opportunity to get together socially during the day.”

Besides serving as a space where faculty members can rub shoulders and possibly (if they so desire) exchange tidbits of administration gossip, the Daniel Family Commons is designed to be multi-purpose in every sense of that. The Commons were most recently used as an after-party location for the Ronald K. Brown performance, and will likely host other upcoming special events such as board meetings and other Center for the Arts affairs.

The top floor is divided into three sections: a terrace, lounge and dining room. After serving themselves food from the buffet just outside of the lounge, diners can relax on the outside terrace and admire the approach of fall on Foss Hill, or if the weather is chillier, there’s always the homier lounge which houses a fireplace and a cozy couch seating area. The inside dining room resembles a restaurant, with tables decked out in tablecloths and set with place mats, silverware and wineglasses.

“It is a big improvement from the Downey House location,” said Joanne Agostinelli, Director of User Services at ITS. “The food was all right but did not have anything particularly special. The food here is excellent. I can already see that it is a good place for people to have a social meeting. It is a nice place to treat ourselves to a good lunch once in a while.”

Kris McQueeney, program and events coordinator for the Office of Admission, agreed.

“The food is a lot better. It is a night and day difference,” she said.

For students chilling on the second floor patio or eating French fries while in line for the Mongolian grill, the top floor of Usdan may remain, for the time being, professors’ best kept secret.

“I think it’s nice that faculty have a place to eat, socialize and all that,” said Lauren Barth ’09. “It’s also frustrating that there’s a pretty room that we can’t know about.”