Titan of the Week: Garrett Galbavy

By: LESLIE LESTINSKY

Staff Writer

@2WriteLoveLilly

You may recognize Garrett Galbavy as the quirky coffee shop guy in all black. Some of you may have even reported him to campus police if you unknowingly caught him in his -off-the-clock black trench coat, complete with chains and large belt buckles.

Galbavy has something to say about his appearance.

“I have one point of exclamation, you may need to include two pictures and I’ll tell you why. Campus security keeps getting phone calls about a suspicious Caucasian male dressed in all black — i.e. me.” Galbavy continued, “So I’d like to make a point of saying, ‘Hi, I’m Garrett. I work at the coffee shop; there ain’t no problem with me.’ 50 percent of the staff knows me and all the security guards you keep calling on me know me. They respond to make sure, but they all know me.”

Glabavy has been an employee of the university, and now specifically Sodexo, for seven years – eight in October, as a Food Service Worker II. He is a jack-of-all trades. You can find him at the Student Activities Center (SAC), the Grill, the coffee shop or helping with catering. He is, as he states, “the go-to guy when someone needs help.”

This was evident even during the interview as this was no ordinary sit-down interview. He traveled from the coffee shop to the Grill, to the SAC, back to the Grill and finally landed back at the coffee shop as the interview came to a close. All along the way, Galbavy was stopping to say “hi” to familiar faces and not-so-familiar alike.

He asked one bystander eating his salad, “Salad any good, bro? Tell me your honest opinion, so we know to order it or not!” Galbavy explains, “Customer feedback we do appreciate.”

Galbavy explains that his favorite thing about working at IU South Bend is, “It’s a good place to start because of all the different types of environments so if you were ever to leave campus, you could work at any burger joint, Starbucks, pizza place. There are a variety of things you can learn here.” He added, “I enjoy my staff members and meeting interesting people.”

In response to what kind of interesting people he’s met, Galbavy replied, “Now that’s a hard one, because I forget people after a day. This [the interview] is an interesting thing for the moment!”

Galbavy explains that working at the coffee shop is his favorite food outlet, because it’s low-maintenance and simple. When asked if he misses the coffee shop being located in the SAC like it used to be, Galbavy replied, “Yes, only for one reason. It was a cool place to chill out. We had a lot of good items and we’re getting some back, but it was just a cool place to hang out.”

Throughout the interview, whatever mission Galbavy was sent on by management and staff, he executed swiftly and with a positive, caring attitude. Next time you see him roaming the sidewalks of IUSB in his trench coat, don’t be alarmed. Rather, give him a high-five and a “good job”.