Student pub would offer real 'Street' alternative

It is no secret that, beloved as 'the Street' may be, many Princeton students wish campus social options were more numerous and social spaces more varied. Even many students who frequent beer-drenched eating clubs sometimes find the scene, like the "Beast," a little flat. According to the recent USG Survey on Race Relations, as much as 63 percent of the student body believes that too few social alternatives to the Street exist at Princeton.

Concerned that there is too much booze at Princeton already, Nassau Hall may be loathe to add new social options that involve alcohol. However, administrators would surely do both undergraduates and themselves a service by offering real support to a recent USG proposal to open a student pub on campus. The current idea, broached by U-Councillors Xiuhui Lim '05 and Sandy Gibson '06 at a meeting with Vice-President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson and other administrators, involves turning Chancellor Green Café into an evening social space that would offer both alcoloic and nonalcoholic beverages to undergraduates of age. Such a venue would be the first of its kind to exist on campus since the 2000 closure of the old Chancellor Green pub — the only University watering hole besides the Graduate College's D-Bar.

It is not the fact that alcohol is consumed, but the manner and social context in which it is consumed that has the most influence on a college's social environment. While students are not about to give up drinking, many would be more than happy with — and would, in fact, actively, seek — the chance to do so under different conditions than those prevalent in Princeton's eating clubs. These students would be happier to sit and chat, relegating alcohol to the role of conversational lubricant, than stand over Beirut tables, treating it as a cognitive solvent.

If the University is serious about encouraging a healthy and vibrant social climate not only in principle, but also in practice, it must come to terms with the fact that alcohol has long occupied a central and storied role in campus social life and won't disappear anytime soon. By providing a greater range of social spaces in which alcohol may be consumed, the University will not only better meet the demands of its students, but will also promote a healthier and more intellectually vibrant, campus social life. Though it is not clear whether Chancellor Green would be the ideal location for a future student pub — Frist would seem a more fitting choice — the USG's idea merits active consideration by the University.