STUDENT LIFE — As ambitious as it is, changing the
otherwise-barren social landscape of UCSD is possible. The creation of the
Loft, a social lounge with a nightclub feel, represents the administration’s
earnest effort to respond to concerns over the lack of an on-campus community.
Although the intentions behind the Loft are good, the presentation of the venue
— even according to the administration’s own standards — is slightly off the
mark.
According to Seth Klonsky, production manager at the
University Events Office, the Loft was designed to have a relaxed and mellow
feel and challenge the student body to become “a part of the club.” Ideas ranging from an iPod jukebox to an LCD
screen that momentarily displays the faces of entering customers are just a few
ways to make people feel a much more personal connection with the space.
While these ideas are nice in theory, to play music through
an interactive medium such as an iPod jukebox would only cater to the musical
tastes of the iPod’s owner, thereby alienating and possibly irritating the rest
of the students in the club.
Furthermore, these new ideas will be experienced by a
relative few, as the nightclub will have a capacity of approximately 130 people
— extremely small considering that it is supposed to be a bonding mechanism for
the entire UCSD community. This detracts
from the core mission which, according to last year’s Undergraduate Student
Experience and Satisfaction progress report, should aim “to address the need
for a greater physical, social and emotional community.” To envision a tighter knit student body
through a venue that can only accommodate a fraction of one college is strange
enough, but to expect that such a goal can be achieved within a campus that is
nearly 200 times the venue’s size is simply preposterous.
Another alienating attribute of the Loft is the way it aims
to be chic. The club will try to achieve
this with a color palette that will undergo subtle changes — the lighting in
the club will slowly dim as the day passes — and an open interior with a
variety of ottomans and communal-oriented circular tables.
The overly artistic and mature environment of the Loft also
poses an issue, as it fails to serve diverse audiences. The narrow focus on the
details of the nightclub may backfire, as it could seem too fancy and
over-the-top for many college-age
undergraduates. Furthermore, the food and drinks served in the Loft may
disappoint — a menu of wine and tapas doesn’t exactly cater to the entire college crowd.
All these amenities, while nice, seem to be designed for an
older audience (such as UCSD graduates) and are not appropriate for the
undergraduate demographic. Simply put, wine-sipping and foreign food will
likely target too narrow an audience to fully achieve the community bonding the
campus so desperately needs.
The University Events and Student Life Offices should look
at other successful off-campus venues to get a better sense of what students
want.
By modeling itself to be more in tune with popular venues,
the Loft could attract the students who would otherwise spend weekend nights at
San Diego hot spots. In addition, the administration should increase student
involvement in planing these sorts of programs so it produces a venue that
interests several sectors of the student body. This can be achieved simply through a comprehensive survey that
clearly demarcates one taste from another. Doing this would circumvent the
possibility of creating a venue that is far too mature for undergraduate
tastes, as the Loft is currently doing.
In a school where social hierarchies and parties have been
replaced by study groups and weekly “Super Smash Bros.” tournaments, the Loft
represents a fresh new challenge to nerdy norms.
However, despite the genuine effort put into the venue’s
environment, the future success of the nightclub is hampered by several
qualities that contradict the administration’s own guidelines for student-life
services.
