Students want to see pub open more often

Loyalist College students have said they’d like to see the Shark Tank Pub open longer hours. Photo by Deanna Fraser, QNet News.

By Deanna Fraser 

BELLEVILLE – Thursdays are Pub Nights at Loyalist College, but students are saying they’d like to see the pub open more often.

Second-year nursing student Evan Spicer told QNet News he wishes the pub were open on weekends because it would be more convenient for students living in residence.

“It’d be a great opportunity for people on res to drink and not have to worry about a ride home” from downtown bars. Spicer said. “There would be no need for a designated driver.”

Loyalist is located away from Belleville’s commercial area. This makes it more difficult for students who live in residence to go to bars like  The Stache or Little Texas, especially since Belleville Transit buses only run until 10 p.m. on weeknights and until 7 p.m. on weekends.

Spicer added that he would go to pub on the weekends just to watch a sporting event.

“It would be a great way for me to watch a game without having to stream it on my laptop at home, because I hate that.”

In previous years the Super Bowl was shown in the Shark Tank. This year, however, it was not.

Sydney Moorman, a Fitness and Health Promotion student who is on the women’s basketball team, said pub not being open on weekends is a big deal to her.

“Being a varsity athlete, we usually aren’t allowed to go out for pub nights before game days, which for us fall on Fridays – which kind of sucks. We don’t get the opportunity to have that college experience.”

Megan Patton, a student in Developmental Service Work, said if pub were open more often, more people might come out.

“On a Thursday night people aren’t making it to their next-day classes,” Patton said. “At least on a Saturday you have another day to just sleep in.”

Shaun Rizvi Sulaiman, a second-year Customs and Border Services student, said the pub not being open more is “kind of disappointing,” adding that “every other school has it.”

Having the pub open more days could help the school financially, Sulaiman said. Mike MacGarvey, a student bartender at the pub, agreed.

“It would give the Shark Tank Pub more income through drink sales,” MacGarvey said.

But when QNet News asked Loyalist’s student life director, Fred Pollitt, if having the pub open more often would help the school, he said the idea was “a bit of a stretch.”

And the president of Loyalist’s student government, Jillian Robinson, told QNet News over Facebook that she is confident that the pub not being open more often is what’s best.

“It’s better to have a full house on Thursday night,” Robinson said.

Pollitt agreed.

“I think our strategy is to do a special event one night a week and sell it out, rather than have two nights and two half houses,” he said.

Because many Loyalist students commute to campus from home, weekend pub nights might not get a good turnout, Pollitt said.

“Saturdays have always been difficult for doing things on campus in general, because students go home for the weekends. They have part-time jobs and that type of thing.”