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Pro-Panda Argument

So now everyone cares. The possible closing of the Sidelines Pub and its potential replacement, Panda Express, invading Driscoll has the student body suddenly becoming sentimental.

The reality of the situation is that many students never or rarely eat at the Pub since it is filled with overpriced bar food that will make you sick about as quickly as it will make you leave.

Of course, Panda Express incites a similar gag reflex, but DU has been looking to create more diversity on campus. What says we’re a diverse university more than adding cheap, Americanized Chinese food to DU’s dining options.

However the issue here isn’t diversity, it’s food. I must ask, are these really the only two options available to students?

A pub not worth the six-dollar processed laxatives they call food and a restaurant as Chinese as Charlie Sheen?

The middle of Driscoll is about as a prime location as it gets, one would think that many restaurants would be dying to have an opportunity to serve students there, which makes one wonder if DU has tried to branch out at all and actually offer students an upgrade for their tuition increases.

Well, I should say an upgrade that doesn’t include turning DUs campus into a giant penny.

If DU really wants to replace the pub they should give the students some viable alternatives.

Preferably, something that sells alcohol, just to wash down the distressing memories that accompany consuming pub food.

Although serving alcohol could be a dangerous proposition given some of the ‘penny-saving’ decisions made by DU authorities recently.

DU should pursue other suitors to replace the pub, and get students involved in the decision making process, either through some sort of school-wide poll, or through the student government.

Until then, students will be forced to wash down the bad memories of a giant inflatable panda with buckets of undercooked meat and greasy fries.

Pro-Pub Argument

Talk of replacing Sidelines Pub with Panda Express has sparked a wide variety of emotions among the student body. Though there are students who would prefer Panda Express or simply replacing the Pub with another dining option, the 67 percent of the student body reported being pro-Pub in a recent Clarion poll. With these students, I wholeheartedly agree.

Taking the Pub away and replacing it with a cookie-cutter corporate satellite, which currently exists in 49 campuses across the country, does more than take away greasy bar food and the only place that serves alcohol on campus, it takes away part of the community we have at DU.

In addition to receiving an education, an integral part of being a college student is building a community in which you and everyone around you are participating and contributing members. If the Pub is replaced, that sense of community will suffer a damaging blow.

In a building called the Driscoll Student Center, there actually seem to be a surprising lack of students. Save for those that use it to cross Evans and the silent studiers at Jazzman’s, there is little day-to-day student interacting in our student center.

Sidelines Pub, however, offers just that: an opportunity and location for students to interact with other students.

Students can be a little loud, play some billiards, have a drink with friends or even enjoy Open Mic Night on the first Friday of the month. Whatever the activity, the Pub offers an experience that is quintessentially DU.

A person would be hard-pressed to find another location on campus that offers the same atmosphere and sense of community.

The real question, then, is not who will offer better food for the students or if the campus dining facilities are lacking an Asian food element. Instead, the student body must ask whether they think that Panda Express can offer the same sense of togetherness that Sidelines Pub can.

If you ask me, the Pub needs to stay, carrying on as a tradition that we as current students can continue to appreciate and one that future students can continue to enjoy in the future.