UA Students Take Over Crescent Hotel, Offer Evening of Dinner, Dancing, Historic Accommodations

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Students and faculty plate the main course for dinner during "A Class Act." From left are Lonnie Terrell, Associate Professor Robert Harrington, Jeffery Allison, Ann Lumpkin, Blake Wilkerson, Assistant Professor Godwin-Charles Ogbeide, and Rioarce Gonzales.

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. – Hospitality and restaurant management students from the University of Arkansas took over the 1886 Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs Feb. 19 to offer guests an evening of dining, dancing and a night in the historic hotel for "A Class Act."

Hospitality and restaurant management is a concentration of the food, human nutrition and hospitality major in the School of Human Environmental Sciences, part of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the U of A.

Guests for the annual event purchased packages that included a night in the Crescent, a wine tasting reception and silent auction, a three-course meal of foods inspired by Arkansas cuisine in the hotel's Crystal Dining Room and dancing to a live band.

Students took over the restaurant, preparing and serving all the foods for the reception and dinner. Other students manned the hotel registration desk and served as bellhops and door men, and turned down beds while the guests were at dinner.

Robert Harrington, holder of the Twenty-First Century Endowed Chair in Hospitality, said "A Class Act" has three objectives.

"First, it's a unique learning experience for the students," Harrington said. "They host a high-end social event in the reception; manage the restaurant and dining room as they prepare and serve the dinner; and they are able to be involved with an historic hotel as they assist in the checking in of guests and plan the event."

The event is also a fund-raiser for the program, Harrington said. Proceeds from last year, the first year it was held, provided scholarships for 13 students and helped cover costs of attending professional and educational meetings.

Kellie Knight, Bumpers College director of development, said this year's event had about 80 guests and raised more than $10,000 for the hospitality and restaurant management program.

Finally, "A Class Act" serves as a recruiting event for students and representatives of hospitality and food industries. Harrington said representatives of 14 or 15 companies from around Arkansas and as far away as Palm Springs, Calif., attended the event.

"They will get to see the students putting what they've learned into action Friday evening," Harrington said. "Saturday morning, students have the opportunity to sit down with the professionals and interview for full and part-time jobs in the industry."

Harrington and Knight expressed gratitude to the hotel's owner, Elise Roenigk, general manager Jack Moyer and director of sales Jodie English, who not only provided the use of the hotel and restaurant, but also instructed students in management practices and helped them make sales calls for the event packages.