Before I get into my blog today, I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their support. I’m relatively new to the crapcampus.com blog, but so far all the other bloggers and visitors to the site have been very supportive of not only the project but my contributions to it, as well. If you like what we’re doing here, please don’t hesitate to speak up and share your thoughts since that is the best way for us to make changes around campus.

Having said that, I would also like to encourage people to try and contribute not only their honest opinions of Babon but also suggestions for improvement. I know we all have been taken advantage of big time by Babson and the administration, and they certainly deserve to get any bad press that comes their way. But the way I see it (and by all means correct me if I’m wrong), the crapcampus.com project is more geared towards making a change at Babson by uniting around a forum where we can share our thoughts, ideas, gripes, and suggestions. After all, the crampcampus.com web site states the following:

“Our goal is not just to make schools look bad. We just want to show what they are really like. Hopefully then they will realize that some things need to change.”

I want to make it clear that I’m NOT discouraging comments in any way. Part of the greatness of the site is your ability to anonymously vent your frustrations about the school, so feel free to blast away. But at the same time, keep in mind that powerful alumni, Babson administrators, and others are also viewing the site, and they can actually make changes in the school. If they show up here and just see a destructive war zone against Babson, then they will likely just write off a lot of our quality thoughts and opinions and try to shut us down. But if we contribute in a way that shows we are organized and have thought things out, then it gives the project a great deal of credibility to influence change. Not to mention if you make some good suggestions, the people in power might come across it and try to make it happen, you just never know.

All I’m saying is to put yourself in Babson’s shoes (I mean after all, that’s basically what we’re asking them to do for us). If someone came up to you and said, for example, “Babson sports suck,” what would you do about it? You probably wouldn’t have any idea where to start. I mean should you get better athletes or rennovate the fields or find new coaches or what? But if someone says, “I hate watching Babson sports because there’s no school support or spirit. They should have a beer tent up at the fields for every home game so we can get drinks, tailgate, and watch the game,” then you might be able to do something about it.

So anyway, that is my two cents. I mean everyone who visits this site has the ability to tear down the Babson world that the administration has created (and which the vast majority of students hate), and I’m definitely encouraging that. But you also have the ability to make your own world up through your thoughts and comments, and I’m definitely encouraging that, too. Granted, the world you create might not get built exactly how you want it to in real life, but contributing constructive ideas might spark others, and changes really will happen.

Ok, so I’ll get down off that soapbox and step onto another one for today’s real blog…

As much as I can’t stand Babson and the way I get treated as one of their customers, I would like to follow my own advice and take a different approach in my blog today. I feel like my complaints would be remiss without any constructive suggestions to follow, so I have decided to chip in with one easy (and cheap) way for Babson to improve the life here at Babson: target Roger’s Pub.

While most people around campus hate the pub, I think it could be a key to a social turnaround at Babson. It gets a terrible rep because of the crowded Thursday nights. I can understand that. I mean how can we have a good time when we can barely walk around, it takes an hour and a half to get our beer from an extremely understaffed bar, and when we do get our beer some tool that’s spitting game at some disgusting swamp donkey spills it all over the place and removes all hope of forgetting, even if just for a couple hours, about this horrid school. Of course that’s not fun.

But there is hope, my friends. Most people don’t realize that the pub is pretty much empty Monday through Wednesday (unless there is a sponsored event, although Wednesdays do tend to attract more Seniors nowadays). Plus, they have either chicken wings or fingers for 25 cents each Monday through Wednesday, and of course they always have the $1 drafts that they have on Thursdays. So you can easily go down there with your friends, enjoy some food, get cheap beers, and watch Monday Night Football or whatever else it is you like to do with your friends.

But that’s not enough. The real problem is Babson doesn’t make good use of the pub. The pub’s hours are bad, the variety of food and drinks is dismal (although I have to admit better than nothing), the entertainment is severely lacking, and–most of all–no one knows or cares about it. So here is my proposal to revamp the pub and make it a place people might want to go to and hang out.

First, add some TVs. There are two small ones by the bar, which is fine. But the “big screen” isn’t that big and is poorly located. It wouldn’t hurt to add a couple TVs near the booths and set them up similar to the bar area because if I’m in a booth I can’t see what’s going on in the game all the way over at the bar. People at pubs need to be able to see the game, it’s a well-known fact, so grab a couple cheap TVs from Wal-Mart.

Second, increase the entertainment. They have that entire back area wide open with nothing in it. There used to be pool tables. Maybe bring one back. Or add another big screen with couches, or another bar. Or a video game setup, or hell even just a jukebox with some more seating area or something would be decent for your normal hanging out purposes. At night, attract more musicians and other acts, even if they’re free, or have open mic nights. But these also rely on my next points.

Open it up for more hours and serve a better variety of food and drinks. We have no late-night food options on campus. So keep the pub open until 2 or something, and serve food and drinks, seems logical enough. Since it’s owned and run by Sodexo, hey, why not let us use our One Cards to buy it? Even exclude the alcoholic drinks from OneCard usage, I don’t care (actually I do care, and I would prefer to use my OneCard to buy beer, but I’m realistic so that point is negotiable). Let people come there for lunch. You can have Sodexo make a bunch of burgers and dogs or something and have a buffet-style spread. You can swipe your card at the door like at Trim and get your food like it’s the organization carnival or something. Have the pub retain similar types of foods like burgers, dogs, wings, fries, grilled cheese, whatever for late night. Even if that’s not available every single night of the week, at LEAST have all that available and be open until 2 over the weekend (i.e. Thursday thru Saturday nights). It also brings up the point of drinks. $1 drafts are awesome, but have a better selection in addition to that and maybe stock a partial liquor bar.

Lastly, get people there. Maybe that’s easier said than done, but if you make the pub better and more like pubs in the real world outside of our Babson bubble, people really will start coming in more often. It’s a simple part of business. If you want people to show up, provide them with a product/service that addresses their needs. Do people need to stop what they’re doing and go to the pub? No, by nature people don’t have to go in there at all, so why are we just hoping that people show up? Be aggressive. Do people need to eat? Yes. Food, I believe, is on the bottom level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is it not? So hmmm, why not put food there? It certainly gives people more of an incentive to stop by. Entertainment, drinks, they address social acceptance among other needs. Granted, they aren’t as important as the need for food, but if you’re putting all these things together, it will definitely attract people to the pub. Maybe it’s just me, but I remember all this stuff from my IME Marketing class. I guess the admins didn’t take that one yet if they don’t realize these things. My point here is simply that using my suggestions makes logical sense and is attractive to students.

But these suggestions also can appeal to the admins. I mean it COULD be a money-generator for Babson. A guy that works a lot with the Babson budget says suggestions to improve the school are going to be taken more seriously if they can bring in revenues. Well, why do you think people open up bars and clubs all over the place, to lose money? No, obviously some of them are successful and make a profit. Babson, in a way, has got us by the balls when it comes to partying, so they should take advantage of that while making us happy at the same time. I mean look at the circumstances. We have NO late-night food unless we order delivery, which can be expensive. Wellesley is a dry town, so there’s nowhere else to really go party unless you want to drive a while (not that this doesn’t happen or wouldn’t continue to happen with a decent pub on campus, but if you’re given a choice between two equal places and only one of them you can walk to, I think you would choose the one you can walk to on most occasions). Plus, if you’re 21+ and you’re deciding where to drink, would you normally choose cramming into a little suite where you can barely move like you’ve done for 3 years already, or would you choose hanging out at a new, cooler place where you have room to breathe, probably have a better time at, and can pretend like you’re not actually on campus? It seems like a no-brainer to me.

Plus, the foundation is already there. We own a pub, we don’t have to make a new one. We have a full liquor license. The same people that own our dining services own the pub, so it would be very easy to coordinate extending our meal plan and meal services to it. The only thing it would really cost is the price of a few TVs and furniture, the added food and drinks, and the staff for the extra hours. Yeah, it seems like a bit of extra cost, but relative to other things we spend money on, that’s pretty cheap. But unlike other costs at Babson, it’s not like the admins would be sinking funds into the pub. This is an investment. They should be able to turn a profit off their investment, or at the very least break even on it if they follow through with it properly, which down the road can help Babson’s revenue structure (not that the pub is going to chip in enormously by any means, but revenue is revenue and Babson is getting pretty desperate for it).

I would actually like to hear other people’s thoughts on the matter. Personally, I think having a sick pub would make this place a whole lot better, and it could hopefully spurn other changes around here, as well. If you agree or disagree, post comments. Your voice will get heard, and it can help get things done around Babson.

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