Students today who study, socialize and order Sbarro on the ground level of Norris University Center might find it hard to believe that more than a decade ago, they could listen to benefit concerts such as “Rock Against Apartheid” and order 50-cent draft beers in the same spot.
But members of Associated Student Government and university administrators want to bring that scene back to life in the Norris Underground in Spring Quarter.
The Gathering Place, affectionately known to NU students as “The Bar” or “TGP” was open from 1982 until 1992, when it closed after concerns of drunk driving and underage drinking resulted in lowered attendance.
Throughout its lifetime, students could purchase alcohol with a valid ID and WildCARD and could listen to live music and stand-up comedy. They also took advantage of promotions such as $1 specialty drinks and “cheap beer night.”
The idea was first considered in 1976 — just four years after Evanston permitted the sale of alcohol within city limits. There was high demand for a student bar, or “rathskeller,” in Norris, although NU officials encountered legal setbacks and other opposition.
The concept of a bar on campus was strongly opposed by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, whose members charged that NU would lose its “high morals and educational standards.”
Nevertheless, the bar opened in 1982 because of concerns that students were traveling to dangerous off-campus locations to drink.
The Gathering Place showed movies, such as “Reefer Madness” and “Risky Business,” and featured fund-raising parties for Dance Marathon and Special Olympics. A&O Productions hosted smaller, alternative concerts at the bar, and fraternities and sororities also held events to benefit their philanthropies.
The Bar was advertised in fliers as featuring “fine spirits and good company” for years and attracted students every day of the week. But the party ended in 1991 when a 19-year-old woman was charged with drunk driving after a head-on collision on Sheridan Road.
The driver was not an NU student but was admitted to the bar with a friend, an NU student who was severely injured in the accident. The bar’s liquor license was in jeopardy as the investigation progressed.
The bar closed for two weeks in January 1992 because of the charge that it was serving alcohol to minors.
It reopened to strict regulations as administrators required students to show two forms of ID and non-students to show three forms, resulting in much lower attendance. Eventually, the bar began serving alcohol fewer nights each week. Attendance dropped dramatically, and students claimed they lost interest.
The bar was closed in 1992, although at that time, Norris Director Bruce Kaiser told The Daily “it would have been easier to close the damn thing years ago.”
A few weeks ago, ASG Student Services Vice President Mike Fong and Executive Vice President Nicole Mash unveiled plans to the Senate for a revamped Norris Underground where alcohol would be served on Thursday and Friday nights. They cited student demand gathered from discussion and ASG’s online forum as the main impetus for reopening an on-campus bar.
“We’re going to try to de-emphasize the … bar aspect of it,” said Fong, who added that the venue’s growth depends on student feedback.
Other proposed plans for the new gathering place include hosting student group activities, providing big screen TVs and featuring small-scale entertainment — reminiscent of “The Bar” of the 1980s.
Jim Carleton, vice president for student affairs from 1972 to 1992, said the bar was popular with students but difficult to operate because it catered to a minority of the student population.
“It was a very difficult situation because of the law,” Carleton said. “We were constantly under an obligation to card very carefully and to check very carefully.”
He predicted that recreating a similar bar would be “extremely difficult,” because the problem with the previous venture still exists today.
“I don’t think it was so much that the law was violated as it was that the vast majority of undergraduate students were under 21,” Carleton said.
To be sure, serving alcohol to underage students remains a constant concern among colleges that offer on-campus bars.
At the University of Pennsylvania, the bar in the student union was closed because of concerns about underage drinking, director Tom Hauber, who oversees facilities used in non-academic events, wrote in an e-mail.
Despite the concern, students of all ages will be admitted to the proposed Norris Underground, but only students 21 and older will be able to purchase alcohol.
The bar will open “under very, very controlled conditions,” Norris Director Bill Johnston said. “The idea is not to drink. It will be to provide an alternative social environment.”
Hayley Roberts said she looks forward to the new Norris Underground and likes the idea of bringing alcohol back on campus.
“There isn’t a lot to do here,” said Roberts, a Weinberg freshman. “So it will give us something to do.”
