Paradox Lost? No, Paradox Found!
Since 1985, Paradox Café has been a central space for Reed students. Situated in the heart of campus, right next to the Gray Campus Center (GCC), Paradox is the only fully student-run food location on the Reed campus. In addition to serving café food and beverages, Paradox also functions as a hub for the community. Over its lifetime, Paradox has been a space for Spring/Fall and Renn Fayre events like speed dating and karaoke, held student art sales, and hosted open mic nights. However, the community has noticed an unfortunate lack of Paradox this semester. Both locations—Paradox Olde by the GCC and Paradox Nu/Lost in the Biology building—have been closed since the end of Spring 2025, only holding a handful of open mic nights this fall, which has raised concerns and questions regarding the future of the beloved café.
As it turns out, Paradox has been forced into closure by massive debt that has accumulated over the last three years. The situation has been tackled over the course of the Fall 2025 semester by the efforts of assistant manager and events coordinator Noe Mitchel ‘26 (any pronouns), stock manager Haydyn Davila ‘26 (they/them), and finance manager Angie Dimas ‘26 (she/they). At the beginning of the semester, the three managers met with Vice President for Student Life Karnell McConnell-Black (he/him) and were given the task of creating a yearly plan and a budget meant to ensure that the café wouldn’t fall deeper into debt. Davila, Dimas, and Mitchel created a first draft of the budget proposal before fall break and made edits and revisions with the rest of the Paradox business team three weeks later
Despite the team’s consistent efforts, revisions to the budget took longer than expected, as insight from both administration and the student team was needed. On Wednesday, December 3, Paradox was finally approved to open for the Spring 2026 semester. The new plan and budget foresees Paradox making a real profit in 2026 and includes reduced hours for Paradox Nu. Overall, the email chain and slow process of getting the budget revised and approved by admin have been the primary reasons for Paradox’s ongoing closure.
Luckily, Paradox has announced that the café will officially be open consistently starting on the first week of classes in the spring. Paradox will soon be back to serving the same comforting fare as usual, and even has some new plans and items to get excited about as students anticipate its reopening. The managers have given insight into these plans, mentioning horchata as a new drink option, multiple weekly events, more consistent drink quality, evening hours at Nu, and Olde being open on Sundays, alongside more of the familiar “hanging out and chilling.” Managers Davila, Dimas, and Mitchel are happy to be opening soon and continue to “reinforce Paradox as a community space.”