In order to avoid the much-feared social dystopia of rampant dorm-drinking and lawless Collegetown parties that may follow banning freshmen from open fraternity parties, students will have to come up with viable late-night alternatives. A centrally located on-campus venue that serves food and alcohol and is open to all students (as recommended by the Student Assembly’s Late Night Programming committee) would help fill the hole of late-night social options left by the changes to the Greek system, as well as provide a space for students of all class years and ages to mingle and unwind. Students will surely support such a pub. But it is up to administrators to get on board and recognize this opportunity to provide an attractive, regulated venue for student programming.

While the administration may question the wisdom of opening a pub on a campus where at least half the students are underage, they should view the idea as more than a simple watering hole. The proposed venue would allow underage students to hang out, eat food and take in a musical performance, and of-age students to have a drink while enjoying the same company and the same performances. Alcohol should be an aspect of the venue, but certainly not its primary appeal — that should be its central location and availability to students of all ages. Every college could use a central gathering locale that serves food and beverage during student-friendly hours, and also offers a performance and programming space. It is difficult to imagine such a venue that, if well executed, would not consistently draw large student crowds, likely making it a profitable operation for Cornell.

There is precedent for such a venue here and at other college campuses. Currently, Helen Newman Lanes, the Big Red Barn and the Statler Hotel serve alcohol. In addition, other universities across the country — including Harvard’s Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub  — have over-under clubs that are similar to the S.A.’s proposal. The University should look to these established venues when considering the strengths and weaknesses of a potential pub — keeping in mind that opening a pub is not only a positive addition to campus life, but a fairly unassuming one. 

Considering the administration’s focus on student safety, as well as its insistence on student-conceived solutions to the lack of late-night programming, the campus pub is precisely the kind of proposal that the University should support. A stable environment in which students can congregate, eat, enjoy a performance and, yes, responsibly imbibe alcohol, would be a welcome alternative to the dorm- and Collegetown-drinking scenes that many worry will arise once the changes to the Greek system are fully implemented. The reality is that while students ought to determine the campus social scene, the administration will be influential in the reconstruction of Cornell social life. With relatively few logistical hurdles and a clear reason for action (the Greek system changes), creation of “Hubbell’s Pub,” as it might be called, should be an easy way for the administration to show that it is serious about listening to student ideas on how to improve Cornell’s late-night social options.