Students looking for a casual and social atmosphere soon will have to look no further than their own campus.
A five-day trial run for a new campus pub located in the Billiken Club on the lower lever of the Busch Memorial Center will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 25. The pub will be open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Jan. 25 through Jan. 27, and from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 28 and Saturday, Jan. 29.
The pub is open to anyone 18 years of age or older. Any person 21 or older must have a SLU student or staff i.d. in order to drink. Those without a SLU i.d., even if of legal age, will not be served.
“The focus [of the pub] is to provide an atmosphere for students to socialize and hang out on campus,” said Kathy Humphrey, interim vice provost of student development.
Entertainment will also play a factor, as the pub will feature a dance floor, mirror ball, video games, jukebox, pool tables and electronic darts. “We want to provide some kind of entertainment every night,” Humphrey said. The pub may also host guest comedians in the future, as a result of SLU’s relationship with the Funny Bone comedy club.
Sodexho-Marriot will provide refreshments, serving a pub menu after 7 p.m., which includes a variety of finger foods and complimentary popcorn all evening.
Humphrey said that mocktail drinks will be served every day, as well as soft drinks for those under 21.
Humphrey said that the idea of opening a pub on campus surfaced as a result of questions raised by representatives from various student organizations on the Student Advisory Board about student life. Committee members voiced their concern that students feel that there an entertainment void on campus. Providing an area with a laid-back atmosphere on campus aims to alleviate that feeling.
“Students [on the SAB] were asking, `What is it that we need?’ and `What’s missing?'” Humphrey said. “[The pub] was designed by students. It came about because they wanted it.
The Student Advisory Board is responsible for helping to understand what type of environment students want.” The SAB will also advise in determining the final decision on whether or not to keep the pub open.
The reaction of students will determine whether or not the pub becomes permanent after the trial run.
“It all depends on whether or not students are responsible,” Humphrey said. “If they aren’t, we’ll be forced to shut it down. We’re depending on [students] to be responsible and have a good time.
“There don’t have to be 100 students there every night,” Humphrey added. “We do have to have a steady stream of students.”
The trial pub will resemble what the actual pub would look like, except for the bar area itself.
“There is no total investment right now,” Humphrey said. A full structural bar would be installed pending a decision to maintain the pub.
“I have high hopes that the pub will provide students the type of social environment they want,” Humphrey said. Although the coffeehouse has received a positive response from students since opening in fall 1998, the pub will differ that it will provide entertainment.
This year’s pub is not the first, though.
In 1981, the Billiken Club opened in the lower level of the BMC as a student pub. Perhaps the new pub will outlast its predecessor.
