After 31 years in the DePaul Center downtown, Sbarro pizza has permanently closed its doors to the public. Just across the hall, a Uni Uni Boba business owner worries it’s a sign that cutbacks at the Loop campus are having a negative impact on customer traffic.

At the end of 2025, DePaul announced cuts to services at the Loop Library, laid off 114 staff members and later announced the June 30 closure of the DePaul Art Museum in Lincoln Park. As the university navigates a path forward for the DePaul community, at least one business owner in the DePaul Center says she has noticed a drop in customers.

“It’s definitely changed a lot,” said Evelyn Dumfeh, owner of the Uni Uni Boba location in the DePaul Center.

Questions about a possible connection between the recent changes and Sbarro’s closure began to emerge after the restaurant said farewell to the university. However, Sbarro has not responded to requests for comment, and the exact reason for the decision remains unknown.

Beyond cuts to DePaul services in the Loop, Dumfeh says the shift in traffic patterns also could be linked to DePaul’s recent decline in international student enrollment, since many are enrolled in programs located in the Loop campus. The drop in international student enrollment is a major reason DePaul has had to tighten its own budget.

Trump administration policies also have led to a drop in federal aid for some students.

The boba shop location has operated in the DePaul Center since 2015, originally as Vivi Bubble Tea. Over a year ago, Dumfeh, a full-time real estate agent, bought and later franchised it to Uni Uni Boba with the goal of creating a hub for DePaul students. However, she said the business has struggled to meet expectations as changes at the university have affected customer traffic. 

Since taking over the store, Dumfeh says she has seen a significant decline in performance compared to the projections she was shown when purchasing the business. “It’s impacted our finances,” Dumfeh added. 

She says efforts of collaborating within DePaul also have been unsuccessful because several student organizations have been forced to cancel orders due to lack of funding.

Dumfeh says she’s been connecting with other schools like University of Illinois Chicago and Jones College Prep High School, as well as other businesses in the area to address the obstacles her store is facing.

“If I just counted on DePaul, we’d be in trouble,” she said.

In addition to networking with nearby schools, Dumfeh plans to collaborate with the Chicago Loop Alliance — a member-based organization that represents the community — to bring more attention to the university district as a whole. Unlike Uni Uni Boba, some other nearby businesses say the cutbacks at DePaul haven’t had a significant influence on customer traffic, at least so far.

That includes Jim Shafer, manager of Beatrix Market.

Having taken over the business only a year ago, Shafer said he can’t speak much on how Beatrix’s business overall has changed over time. He says because the market is adjacent to DePaul, with an entrance on Jackson Boulevard, they receive a mixture of clientele — not just students.

However, Shafer does anticipate some type of impact from the changes at DePaul. 

“Eventually, it will probably affect us,” he said.

Like Shafer, Jimmy John’s assistant manager Edwin Bernal says there haven’t been any noticeable changes in business since the budget cuts.

Bernal thinks it will take some time to see the full impact, since the cutbacks occurred fairly recently. 

“Once the students feel the effects, it will start to show more,” Bernal said.

He has already noticed more student cards declining when trying to make purchases at Jimmy John’s — or students needing to pay through multiple methods.

After Sbarro’s closure, Dumfeh said her own emphasis on promotion grew from the unease she felt. 

“That’s scary for me as a business owner,” Dumfeh said.“Now they’re gone, who’s next?”

Dumfeh says she has also noticed a trend in businesses along State Street closing, compared with other places in the Loop. She says it will take a group effort to strategize and intervene to save businesses. Dumfeh said that should include more support from DePaul for businesses in the DePaul Center.

“Seeing some of the ways that they can maybe better support their tenants, I think it’s like a mutual benefit as well,” she said.

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