At 10:30 a.m. Monday, Mississippi State University announced that Perry Cafeteria was closed due to a water heater malfunction that lasted two hours. Students were encouraged to use other dining options on campus. 
Pulkit Vigg, MSU Dining Services director of operations, said the water heater at the basement of Perry Cafeteria is essential to the running of the cafeteria.
“The reason it is closed is that there is no hot water for hand-washing and no hot water for dish washing, and we want to serve safe food,” Vigg said. 
Sid Salter, MSU chief communications officer, said officials addressed the issue quickly so the cafeteria could be opened.
“State health codes require the availability of hot water in the safe operation of a cafeteria, so the facility was closed by the university until a replacement water heater could be procured from another campus location. We’re hopeful that Perry will be reopened within the hour,” Salter said. 
The Perry Cafeteria resumed operations at 12:30 p.m. on Monday. 
Courtney Bryant, Aramark Marketing Manager at MSU said the dining services along with MSU Facilities Maintenance conduct preventative maintenance on all equipment to ensure smooth operations.  
“The hot water heater has been replaced and is now working well, the primary responsibility of maintaining HVAC equipment lies with Facilities Management. In the case of a breakdown, our protocol is to contact Facilities Management to rectify the situation in a timely manner. The first measure taken was the decision to shut down Perry so that no unsafe food was served to our customers. The customer is our first focus, and we felt that this was the most responsible call in this situation,” Bryant said. “We then proceeded into our communication plan, which involved informing the campus community via email, the MSU homepage, the MSU Dining homepage and social media.”
Bryant said there were team members at the front doors of Perry to explain the issues to the students and field any questions about other dining options that they may have.
“Our team is prepared for any happening that may occur and moves forward in any situation, always keeping the customer’s safety at the forefront of our decision-making process,” Bryant said.
Brand Hanson, civil engineering major who said he eats at the Perry Cafeteria every day, said the closing was inconvenient for him, even considering the option of going to the union.
“I’ll go to the union if I have to, but I would rather eat a buffet and be able to sit down because I don’t have a class until 1,” Hanson said. 
Tyler Mefford, freshman physics major who said he eats at the Perry Cafeteria daily as well, said he prefers the Perry to a crowded area like the union and believes a Maroon Alert should have been sent to notify students of the closing.
“I just feel like if they were going to close they should have sent a Maroon Alert or some kind of a message, so I wouldn’t have to walk half a mile to come eat,” Mefford said. 
MSU Dining Services gave an option of using the block meals at Templeton and McArthur Café during the time of the closure of Perry Cafeteria.