Why can't this come true? JJC, can we start some big petition for a student run, GW affiliated coffee house? Is there really any way of making this happen? ... Jokes aside, is there really any of petitioning the school to allot some money toward turning fishbowl, or whatever into a coffee house run by students, that I guess, gives most, if not all of the profits earned to GW? There could be so many fantastic student readings there and the possibilities are endless! Students could showcase their art, etc, etc, etc. I feel so out of the loop and kind of silly not having a GW Coffee House, we just have Starbucks (4?), Starbucks pt.2 in the Marvin Center, ABP...I did send an email to Helen Cannaday-Saulny, GW's Assistant Vice President for Student Academic Support Services. She's the one who is behind the Fishbowl, that forlorn expanse of chairs that sits on G Street. Is that lounge always vacant, or empty of human beings only when I walk by? Admittedly, my strolling tends to be in the AM. Is the space in heavier use during the evenings?
I sent the email on October 24 2008, and a quick check of my inbox shows that as of today no reply or even an acknowledgment from VP Cannaday-Saulny has been received.
My own guess: the Fishbowl is there as a placeholder. Once the university gets more funding for buildings, I predict the lounge will be knocked down and a new "Center for Advanced Policy Studying the Advanced Study of Policy Study" will rise there. Despair not, though: it will have a burrito place on the ground floor, and students will be able to use their meal cards. What it will lack is a place for poetry readings, art exhibits, good coffee, and faculty-student hanging out. Still, I hear that Chipotle has decent guacamole.
5 comments:
Yeah. In the 10-year campus plan, it says they are knocking it down for something else within 3-5 years.
The University of Pennsylvania is quite proud of their Kelly Writers House, which according to the website (http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/about/) is "an actual 13-room house at 3805 Locust Walk on Penn's campus that serves as a center for writers of all kinds from Penn and the Philadelphia region at large." I'm sure such a venture at GW would be successful if the administration could be made to understand the benefits of such an investment, perhaps in partnership with Busboys and Poets (as Jeffrey has previously mentioned) or as an extension of our partnership with the Folger (expanding their presence to NW DC). GW has a few townhouses they could devote to the purpose.
A potentially powerful but impermanent step in this direction is to have 7 or 8 English students form a Living and Learning Cohort (LLC) and apply for townhouse residency. I am currently the coordinator of an LLC that lives in JBKO, and I would consider applying next year for an English LLC, if other students are interested (this year's applications have already closed). If we cap the LLC at 7 or 8, getting a townhouse is possible. An LLC would also receive about $100 per member from GW Housing, so it wouldn't be entirely dependent on the English Dept for support. If the LLC is successful for one year, it should be easy to continue it once established.
I'm surprised I did not realize this possibility earlier. Definitely something to consider, and to use the blog to organize.
Thank you so much, JJC for sending an email and really taking my and many other students' pleas about the absurd fact we do not have our own coffee house. I would give anything to have a common area that serves coffee for students. Starbucks is always loud, Gelman is always too packed, and the Marvin Center well, kind of uninviting.
I just do not get it. It really stinks that if I want to do a coffee/study date with some friends, we have to run down to Dupont and if it's late at night, you're forced to either take the metro or a cab, which gets expensive.
Not to mention, the artists at GW are not fully appreciated or respected. Yes, they have showcases in their building, but it isn't the same. You aren't surrounded by their art, if there was an area GW students went to and their art was on display, it would finally be respected and enjoyed. Oh, and the literary magazines and newspapers could be there, scattered around, and read! Not just sitting lonely in a basket outside Rome Hall, later to be thrown out and never read because they were getting heavy in so-and-so's bag.
Ok, I'm done ranting. Thank you so much for really, truly taking an intuitive. If it wasn't for professors who cared about the well-being of their students as much as you do, we would be a whole lot worse off than we are at the moment. I can't sing my praises enough, even though Chipotle will be there in t-minus three years at this rate, at least we can say, you tried and cared enough give the students (and professors!) a voice against guacamole. Thanks, thanks again, thanks so much, I'll give you a huge hug on Wednesday. Beware! haha.
Thanks for bringing Kelly Writers House up, Calder, because it was my presenting a paper there (under the auspices of their critical theory series, 'Theorizing') that made me realize what we are missing at GW. The Kelly Writers House is a one stop spot for arts and literature. It integrates readings, lectures, art exhibits, and hang out space. It is also utterly unpretentious.
My dream is for GW to convert townhouse space to a DC version of the Kelly Writers House, but it has proven very difficult to make that argument when the institution seems obsessed with renovating athletic space and building a science center. See this.
Sasha, I appreciate your kind words! It is the fact that our English majors are so great that has made me so happy to chair the department.
I was approached today to play an open mic coffee house kind of thing at the Fish Bowl next week.
To promote something on campus that might interest people:
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/48/l_1622812db700405b8f7276397e7367c5.jpg
Julie Kroomwiete and I are putting this on. A bunch of folk acts. We are part of a group that wants to bring the arts to campus, so talking with us could coordinate something awesome.
Thanks!
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