Yes
By Matthew Pendlington
A winning formula should not be tampered with. When ‘the Rock’ returns to World Wrestling Entertainment he will find the programme much the same as he left it years ago. FIFA long ago stopped trying to improve on its perfect gaming experience and Jersey Shore continues with the same old regurgitated ‘situation’ as ever. So when the pencil pushers at University HQ decided to ignore the views of students and move McQs from its current site to the Roger Kirk Centre, there was only one question on everybody’s lips: why change something we already love?
To ignore the views of students on an issue that directly affects their own social life at the university is outrageous. The students, the academic elite, should be entitled to decide where their inflated fees should be spent. Since we have a collegiate system of sorts, we need our colleges to preserve their own identity, to provide entertainment and to protect the hearts and minds of their followers; not to reach rock-bottom by losing all values and character. With a commercialised environment engulfing every consumer in the new money making mechanism it will be impossible to replicate the pub-friendly McQs atmosphere that now exists, leaving only the superficial drivel.
Moving McQs to the Roger Kirk Centre would be like ripping off one of your fingers, stitching it next to your toes and saying it will work in just the same way as all your other digits. Painful and ridiculous; all for something that will never function as it should. The critics will undoubtedly argue that such a small move in location will not alter the dynamic too much. However, you only need to look at the joke Derwent’s college bar has become in order to call last orders on that argument. Only someone on a Charlie Sheen sized drug-fuelled binge could argue that the college has more character because of the change. There is no life, no atmosphere and perhaps more importantly no tradition.
When ‘the Rock’ finally returns to the WWE, he will find a show which has not changed because the people love it. If we want to keep the things we love, then we too need not just a people’s champion, but the support of all students to keep the heart and soul of James alive. Evil will only prevail.
No
By Marinus Maris
For many, the college bar is seen as the heart of their respective institutions. To this end, JCRs and college members alike work tirelessly to keep their bars’ reputation intact for the general image of the college.
Recently however, many have observed that this so-called reputation or character is being lost due to either a lack of pride, an increase in integration or simply just generally poor standards.
At first it could be said that the character of college bars has not been lost, rather that it changes every year. Essentially the character and spirt of any college, let alone its bar, is crafted by the new entrants coming in every year. With different people and different ideas filtering through all the time, the image of college bars is forever changing, and therefore the character of the bars are not lost, but are merely being altered all the time.
This perhaps demonstrates that the college bars, D-Bar in particular, have developed new forms of identity. Every day students flock in and out of different colleges for socials, a place to eat, or just to relax. This suggests that the college bars have developed a character of homeliness and comfort, an atmosphere in which everyone and anyone is welcome to enjoy the comforts and luxuries of other bars on campus to their full extent. It can also be mentioned that many of the bars keep up a traditional character with the continuation of pub quizzes. Many bars on campus will take time out maybe once a week to hold their pub quiz, a tradition that has been running for quite some time.
This does seem to indicate that a level of character or tradition is upheld within some of the college bars, demonstrating that a certain image is maintained. Ultimately, despite not quite living up to such high levels of character as set by the paternalistic standards of the collegiate university system, York’s bars do, to some extent, keep their own little nuances.
It cannot be denied that York’s bars have lost some sense of character, but in doing so they have established new images, particularly that of openness, integration and comfort. While the nature of the bars change every year, they still retain some certain little quirks. With all this taken into account, there is certainly reason to show that college bars keep a certain level of distinctiveness and that they have not completely lost their character.