Let's Re-Pub the Pub

It's not about alcohol--just ambiance, and a sense of it being ours, not Flik's, and not the administration's occasional breakfast room.

You know the biggest room in the pub, the one without a name? Under the orange loft, off the North Room and the comfy newsroom, with a door to the terrace? The ugly disgusting one with oily plastic furniture? That used to be the vibrating social center of campus. It's already smack in the middle of things, and we already hang out outside it and sit there to snack when the other room's full. But if it looked comfortable, if we made it cozy and redecorated it to our tastes, if it had approachable homey secondhand furniture and lighting, we could actually have somewhere to go on campus in the winter that wasn't far away or too small for large groups. We could establish it as a meeting place and drift from it to other events or student spaces. We could meet new friends there, since there'd be room and atmosphere for mingling.

A few images from the past. That building (or at least that spot) has been many, many things in 80 years: an infirmary, a gardener's cottage, a men's dorm, a bar called Charlie's place, The Pub (by that name), and now only since '98 the Siegel Center with its institutional aesthetic and high-school cafeteria sensibility. It can change again. As The Pub, the [unnamed room] had brown wood-paneled walls, posters everywhere, bare wooden rafters, and a railing along the loft so people could perform up top for listeners on the ground level (think live coffeehouse music, poetry readings, or whatever floats your boat). --See the photos below, and ask Abby at the Archives if you'd like to see more.

A few images people have put forward for the future:
-murals on the walls between the windows
-some rotating student paintings
-donated comfy furniture: wood chairs and tables, upholstered couches
-bookshelves for student writing, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and conference papers
-a stereo devoted to music made by students
-a projector to project student films on the space below the loft for special events
-any other images, ideas, daydreams you can conceivably think of working into it

We'll have to iron out the details amongst ourselves once we have a larger following.

If this is a project that appeals to you here's how you can take part:
-tell your friends about it, and get their ideas as well as their support
-help create, distribute, and collect a petition to various groups of friends
-volunteer as an organizer, a publicizer, or an event planner
-help find alums or parents who can offer up old furniture, lighting, paint, etc. for our cause
-not engage with the administration on this until we the student body have our act together

One huge source of power is NOT asking the administration or student senate for money. What we need are THINGS, not the money to buy them with, and if enough of us get involved we can pull together those resources without asking the administration for anything but permission. Funding is their greatest source of control, and let's face it--they're broke, even though they're charging us an arm and a leg to be here.

Tada! Yes we can.