DEC unsure of 2009 Cannon reopening

legendary Cannon Club

Though Dial Elm Cannon (DEC) Graduate Board chair Warren Crane ’62 and University Executive Vice President Mark Burstein had both said earlier this year that the club is slated to open next February, Crane said in an interview yesterday that this is not a firm deadline.

Crane still hopes for a February 2009 opening. He said, however, “We don’t want to open the club without the club being completely renovated. And we don’t want to tell the sophomores that we are going to open and then not be able to. So we’ll really be making that decision and announcement probably in September.”

Rumors of Cannon reopening have been circulating for nearly a decade, since the DEC Board successfully bought the club back from the University in 2001, after missing a 1999 deadline. Crane had said in 2001 that the club had a 50 percent chance of reopening in 2002.

In May 2007, Crane told The Daily Princetonian that he had hoped for the club to be ready by February 2008. Difficulties in obtaining a building permit, however, caused the plans to be delayed.

Now, Crane said, most of the permits have been obtained. “The Department of Community Affairs in Trenton has approved all of the plans we’ve submitted with the exception of the plumbing plan, and we expect that will be approved this week or next,” he said.

The DEC Board has not yet decided whether the club will reopen as a sign-in or a bicker club, Crane said earlier this year, adding that club alumni would be involved if the new Cannon were to be a bicker club.