We have now witnessed exactly a generation of students who have come and gone without a student pub (Starters closed in 2021).
That is enough time for the message not to be passed on to future students, so much so that memories of the glory of the pubs are slipping away.
Sadly, that’s not enough. Stories are what keep ideas afloat. Living memory is needed to substantiate a dream.
This current moment of campus life is historic in the sense that we are at a crucial tipping point where the last vestiges of what a student pub was like still exist.
At the heart of this generation-defining moment (I’m allowed to exaggerate sometimes) is the current battle being waged between Loboski Venues Ltd and SSDP, over the old Captain Cook Pub no less.
A battle of epic proportion, fuelled by unshakable wills and two compelling visions of what studentville should look like.
But before we get into all of that business, let’s talk about the p(ipe)ub dream first.
Twenty years ago, there were five to seven student pubs all in the university area. These venues were, according to the tales, debauched places with promotions like "Bring in a live horse for a free crate" and "a litre of beer for a litre of petrol," in one bar’s case, largely proving my point.
They were also indisputably amazing centres of life. They created a vibrant student community where anyone could be anyone or anything, an egalitarian dream.
Quintessential to the formation of the "student body", the student pub fundamentally created the "university experience" that we all think of.
They were equal spaces which brought about a community of people willing and trying to do things for the benefit of the many. Due to the community-building aspects of the pubs, they were inherently safe. And despite some of the wayward promotional tools used by past owners, students were looked after much better than they are at flat parties, clubs or on the street.
Without student pubs, student culture as a whole has fragmented, it is becoming harder and harder to pin down things that define the student body. Most significantly individuals become isolated and bereft of anything outside of their personal, study-driven, university experience.
With the student pub being cited as the golden bullet for solving every issue with studentville, it’s now no wonder SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) have been attacked after opposing the on-licence for a new student venue in the upstairs of the Captain Cook.
Bear in mind I think that under any circumstance, a pub is better than no pub, but there are legitimate safety concerns that both SSDP and the Crestani parents have with the handling of DropKicks.
In my mind these are a lot of nit-picky things which don’t warrant an objection, but I have also talked to both of these groups, and their passion for students as a whole gives me faith that they have legitimate concerns which deserve to be aired. It’s just a shame that it has to be done like this.
DropKicks will likely get its licence, maybe with a few tweaks, but inevitably at a massive cost to both parties. All I can hope for is that the hearing has done a smidgen of help towards keeping students safe.
Yet, at the end of it all, DropKicks will be a venue, not a pub. We will still be left with half of the (time-sensitive) problem.
U-Bar already provides a venue for aspiring student musicians to perform, but it also necessarily excludes those students who aren’t really into music. Otago University Students Association (OUSA) has been promising a student pub since the closure of Starters, with every hopeful OUSA president since campaigning on delivering salvation.
Still, we wait, and for the first time in ages, the incoming OUSA president has not promised to deliver a student-pub, likely fearing further bureaucratic hold-up.
It is time for OUSA as an organisation (the people behind the students) to get their act together and make it happen.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with all of this. The dream may be realised or it may fade into the pits of history to the detriment of the entirety of studentville.
All I know is that this is the second column in a row I have written about alcohol. It’s an issue of huge significance to this city in a way it never was when usage was in pubs and under control.
Then on the other side of the equation there is the fact that people just need places to go that aren’t home or work.
A student’s options are severely limited in this regard, particularly seeing as the library (the traditional neutral space) means work for students. You can’t build communities without spaces, importantly, spaces without hierarchy.
When you take this into account, the student pub just ticks so many boxes in relation to building a student community.
I feel like I’m always ending like this, but I feel like it’s a good way to end, whether that be in writing or just in conversation in general, so I’ll just say — let’s make it happen.
Student pub or bust.
• Hugh Askerud is a local and student at the University of Otago, majoring in politics and religious studies.
