Julia Garrison
News Editor
Picture this: a space where students can come together, have a drink and watch a movie. What you’re picturing is probably a small dorm room, maybe some fairy lights and a small portable Bluetooth speaker. Certainly you hadn’t imagined a brightly-lit, concrete basement to spend your hours of fun with friends while a few scattered students play a half-hearted game of pool in the background.
This is the consequential fate of the on-campus bar: The Underground (UG). Having played The Goliard’s Covers over my time at Wooster with the Ringo Starr All-Starr Live Tribute Cover Band and Friends 4.0, I’ve spent more time in the UG than the average student. I’ve enjoyed every event put on by students and understand their immense commitment to their peers to continue making events work, but I’ve always noticed some issues with the space that need to be addressed. We need a new space that students actually enjoy spending time in and want to visit.
Before the modern-day UG (which opened at its current location in 1974), there was The Shack — which had no affiliation with the College. Owned by the Syrios family, the Shack was opened in 1910 near Westminster Cottage and would be known by not only the on-campus community but also the greater community of Wayne County as a spot to meet and have a good meal. It stood on Pine Street until its demolition in 2014 after a messy legal battle with the College, where the property was bought by the College.
This is not to say that the UG — and variations on the UG — haven’t existed throughout history. The Rubbermaid building behind Brush and Holden used to be a student hub, and even Mom’s used to have a place — away from other dining locations — to sit, eat and converse. Kittridge’s short-lived late night in 2021 and 2022 also provided ample seating while serving consistent food options from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The UG lacks at least one of these things from each category. The space doesn’t exactly feel inviting. A bar that is below street-level should have a dark feel to it, with decor to inhabit the space — especially if the bar is called The Underground. Instead, the UG is bright with scattered LED lights, not really a place that feels true to its name.
The process to actually host your events at the UG is also unhelpful to the general student experience. If an event is happening in Kittridge, students cannot host events in the UG. If the UG cannot be staffed, students cannot host an event. It leaves clubs that rely on hosting musical events — like the Goliard — in an odd spot.
A few years back the UG also stopped accepting passports as a valid form of identification — which comes from the Ohio Department of Commerce: Liquor Control not accepting passports or driver’s licenses from other countries. I believe that if the College is unable to validate the age and identity of its own students to comply with liquor laws, something needs to be changed. The process for receiving an Ohio ID is not generally “quick,” and I would assume that students are not getting their Ohio state ID just to enter the UG.
I understand that there is not a perfect way to go about making the UG better immediately, but continuing to shrink the occupation size and having constant staff supervision over student events is not helping the revitalization of the space. Students desperately need a new space — college-affiliated or not — that is local to campus where they can have a drink and socialize. The UG just doesn’t cut it anymore.
