Measuring the loudest and quietest campus dining cafes at Syracuse University

At night, in the early morning and on weekends, Newhouse’s Food.com is empty. 

But Monday morning to Friday evening, the cafe and social hub bustles with droves of students, faculty, staff and visitors, even during class times.

This dynamic exists at each of SU’s home-college cafeterias and main study spots, where students congregate to study, eat and socialize.

There are 15 campus dining cafes on campus, according to SU campus dining, stretching from Neporent Cafe at Dineen Hall to Olsten’s Cafe at Whitman and all the way up to Otto’s Juice Box at The Barnes Center at the Arch. Students use the hubs for quick bites of food, to talk to classmates or finish assignments.

The NewsHouse recorded average noise levels at some of campus’ most popular social gathering spots to measure the environmental differences between available options to help students find the third space best suited to their needs. 

American sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third space” to encapsulate the importance of accessible public places beyond the home and workplace.

People have distinct physical and setting-based preferences for third spaces. Universities see it as essential to provide students with varied access to study venues and social hubs, especially in the academic buildings they call home. 

Third spaces at SU offer students who live on the edges of campus, or off-campus entirely, the opportunity to eat, study and socialize with their friends without traveling far. 

Whitman freshman Nick Ferrari prefers to rest between classes but stops to eat if needed. 

“I’ll either go back to my dorm and rest up before my next class, or I’ll go grab a quick bite,” said Ferrari.

Other students also prefer the controlled environment of their dorm rooms, including sports management freshman Justin Didonato, who says he can often find alone time at home between classes. 

“I like going to my dorm room because my roommate usually isn’t in the room,” Didonato said. “Or, I like going to Falk Cafe, because that’s where my major is.”

The NewsHouse measured noise levels during the 10-minute transition periods between SU classes, which are measured in decibels (dB) on a “sound level scale.” Decibels work logarithmically, meaning every increase of 10 dB means the noise is doubled.

Located on the second floor of Falk College, Falk Cafe is smaller than Newhouse’s Food.com but a similar size to the cafeteria in Whitman. The cafe averaged a level of 52.2 decibels at 2:05 p.m., which is half as loud as Food.com, which registered at 62.2 dB between 12:30 and 12:45 p.m. But, the two turned in similar max noise readouts, at 75.0 and 78 dB, respectively. 

Other students visit their registered student organizations, while some prefer a solitary seat in a building like Hendricks Chapel to gather themselves.

The chapel is well-known for People’s Place, its student-run coffee shop open to the entire student population. But just upstairs, the Hendricks lobby goes under the radar as a study space, with two padded chairs and an average reading of 47.6 dB, the level of a “quiet whisper.”

Students also congregate in Pages Cafe, which measured a similar sound level to food.com at 61.6 dB, classified on the sound meter as a “quiet street.”

After looking for a place to eat a Halal Shack bowl and being pushed away from the high-traffic Schine Student Center, Didonato settled on a room in Huntington Hall. The ground-floor lobby recorded a 49.9 dB average at 2 p.m.

“I like a little noise, honestly,” Didonato said. “I like the quietness, but I can’t deal with it when studying because I just need some background noise.”

Across campus, the Heroy Geology Building lobby seats a similar number to the neighboring Falk Cafe, but in a wider venue. Between classes at 5 p.m. it measured an average of 55.6 dB but maintained a low maximum of just 65 dB. 

This means at its loudest, the Heroy lobby is still twice as quiet as the high spikes recorded in food.com, the Falk Cafe and Huntington Hall.

“I don’t mind voices, but if I’m trying to get homework done before classes or study, yeah, I’d definitely prefer a quiet spot,” Ferrari said.

But despite noise from passing tour groups and students collaborating, the NewsHouse is staying put in Food.com. Whether you like complete silence or don’t mind background noise as well, we hope to see you try a new campus choice soon.