For years, there have been rumors and speculation about the possibility of creating a bar in the Dive. This year, Student Senate Co-Presidents Jen Fox and Nick Prince are interested in finally carrying this idea out.
“Last year, different projects, logistical hurdles and intra-Senate distractions got in the way of the project,” Fox said. “For the most part, the Dive renovation has gone untouched for a year. When we ran for Co-Presidents, one of the things we promised to do was take the Dive renovation as far as we possibly could. That has not changed: this is among our top three priorities as Student Senate Co-Presidents.”
“The plan is to create more of a pub feel than a bar, where students could go for ‘happy hour’ type food, and also beer and wine. It would primarily be open during the day and early evening as a place to hang out, and especially to be an informal meeting place with professors and administrators,” Prince said.
For now, the preliminary steps to move the project forward have been taken, and the Student Senate Co-Presidents are forming a committee of people to be involved with the project to begin answering two questions about the project.
“We want to figure out what exactly we want to do, and how can we accomplish that,” Fox said. “Neither of these questions are simple, so we’re planning to invite multiple students and administrators into this conversation.”
Some senior students have expressed interest in such an idea coming to life.
“I am totally in support of this idea. It gives students on campus a place and an opportunity to socialize,” Senior English Major Abby Koppen said.
“We appreciate input on the subject from any student, please e-mail us at foxprince@gustavus.edu to share ideas,” Fox said.
First of all, to the senior English major, and those who would parrot her exact words: there are more than enough places on-campus for students to socialize in the traditional sense–you can hang out with your friends (comfortably) just about anywhere on-campus. Perhaps there is no place on-campus to “socialize” as a euphemism for drinking, but let’s face it, if you have to use a euphemism in the first place, it makes it look like you don’t want anyone to know that you drink, which just seems silly if you’re in support of this campaign.
Also, for those in favor of this campaign, it doesn’t seem to make sense for a “bar” to “primarily be open during the day and early evening” when most people are probably going to be consuming all of their alcohol at night. Financially as well as socially, those hours don’t make sense. And as far as making it “a place to hang out, and especially to be an informal meeting place with professors and administrators,” give me a break–you just want to create a Patty’s on-campus so you don’t have to walk all the way down there. It doesn’t seem to me to be a safety issue at all (for the drinkers; for the underage, however, it just seems like a quick way to make people uncomfortable.) And speaking of uncomfortable, I seriously doubt many professors would feel comfortable drinking, especially getting a little bit tipsy or drunk, ON-CAMPUS. I feel like people WANT to get away from anything that reminds them of work or school to do that sort of thing, even if they think this is a good idea now; I’m sure it’s impossible, if not nearly so, to create the same atmosphere of a city pub on a college campus, and doesn’t that kind of take the excitement out of it anyway?
I don’t know. But that’s my two cents.
Caitlin,
While I don’t disagree with you (rather, I agree with your entire comment, especially the first paragraph), I think the key fact is the so-called “pub-atmosphere” versus that of a bar as described by Nick Prince in the article. Though my knowledge of pubs is extremely limited, this is different than the traditional sense of bar where people only go at night to drink and drink some more. Rather, as described, it would be more of a place to grab a bite that’s a little bit nicer than the caf with an atmosphere more like that of a cafe/restaurant. The hours as well as the absence of hard liquor seem to take the emphasis off of drinking and direct it more towards socialization and the like (which, as many forget, can be done without alcohol).
That being said, I am still not in favor of the project.
Hey guys, you should write a letter to the editor instead of mucking about in cyberspace!