With the university’s controversial termination of Encore’s contract drawing closer, we remain unsure of any catering potential replacements, despite Encore’s leave in April looming.
There is no suggestion of an improvement beyond vague suggestions that “companies” are being considered. I’d like to draw your attention to the subject of a bar on campus.
Normally prefaced by the phrase “I wish there was a…”, it is something that many students have been left confused about. There is no official line that can be found online about why we don’t have one, just links to Malone’s Bar.
You don’t have to dig very hard to find out that our Student’s Association was once the venue of a club. Downstairs, in the now 24-hour lab, was once an actual venue. The social learning space included a bar. Not just a few bottles of overpriced spirit gathering dust, like at the Bistro, but an actual bar.
Old blueprints of the lower floor include the setup of a long gone DJ booth, where the printers now reside. Even the best DJs have trouble dropping any tracks on printers.
It’s not as if students aren’t concerned about the issue. In the entire recorded history of Student Voice, there have only been three instances where a bar has NOT been brought up.
Student Voice occurs four times every year, and records go back quite a long way. So to suggest that this isn’t a topic that students are really eager to bring up would be naïve. They have all the minutes available online on the Students’ Association website so you can see for yourself.
So something is preventing us from getting a bar. In my first year, there was a rumour that the Student’s Association didn’t want to promote drinking culture. Fair enough, if that’s the case, I sympathise.
…And then lose all sympathy when I remember that Sports, Media, and Society funding, is based on how much each group can spend on alcohol each month at the sponsor bars and clubs.
It can’t be that the Principle, Pamela Gillies has a personal vendetta against the bar, a potential financial strain on GCU. Compare the cost of running a bar, and the £59,373 spent on Gillies’ hotel and flight expenses two years ago. Which cost is at least partially recouped by the students it benefits?
So who is setting the bar too low on their priorities list?
The EDIT asked the university for comment on the issue, which they declined and referred to the Students’ Association. When asked Lauren Ramage, the GCU Student President stated:
“The FTOs completely understand that students want a bar on campus and this year we are really pushing for it. We are currently going through a catering tender process and VP GSBS, who is policy lead for Catering, has made sure that this is at the top of our priorities.”
