What up Van Wilders or we more Van Mild-ers these days? Has covid interrupted our romantic lens of campus life as some American college movie or do we still like to interact in the flesh whilst absorbing beer and good beats? I’m talking the uni bar, which, in my mind should be a pillar of uni life experience. A place to mingle, switch the brain off and slide into tune oblivion.
At a glance it looks like we’ve all got a case of wall flower syndrome because a good whack of you said you never frequent the uni bar….no shade though, it’s been a hot minute since we were allowed to do anything including standing up so I get it if you prefer to dance around at home in your undies drinking White Claws.
As an ode to this (surprising to me) poll, I pose the question of why don’t you socialise at the uni bar for my university experience research topic #mycurisoity? I assert that this is a relevant topic as post pandemic life has altered many facets of social undertakings and I believe it has directly affected our ‘regular’ social interactions that would include hanging at the uni bar as a means to meld with our new cohort.
‘Quasi- public places introduce additional social expectations that can accentuate, compromise or even violate the principles of stranger-stranger interactions’, ( Morill, C et al, 2005, pg 27). Has our threshold of tolerance for new interactions diminished with endless screen time and the normalisation of isolation? Or has the collective idea of stereotypical campus life that was fed to us through endless cultural depictions of American college movies become somewhat of a myth rather than attainable or desirable embodiment?
Holzer, J et al (2021) suggests that ‘universities are social places, enabling Social interaction and the chance to build networks and friends and represent an important developmental context for students to experience a sense of belonging with regard to an institution.’ This statement certainly seems to ring true when life was less interrupted by pandemics and the flow on effects from that.
Pre pandemic life as discussed in the conversation article Meet me at the bar indicates that a solid number of students did indeed meet at the uni bar on a frequent basis but this text again is pre pandemic and I think it is key to note that we have gone through a huge collective shift in our social behaviours.
‘To understand student behaviour upon returning to campus, it is relevant to examine how they responded to COVID-19 initially’ ( Timothy et al, 2021). This article alludes to stats that drinking rates amongst students dramatically declined over the lockdown portions of the pandemic and this could be a factor in why students aren’t looking toward the campus drinking hole.
In my eyes this is a relevant topic as there is little qualitative research that I can locate on this area. Are we still up for a brew or has socialising beyond the screen become taboo?
Holzer, J et al (2021) Higher Education in times of Covid 19: University students basic need satisfaction, self regulated learning and well being. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211003164
Morrill, Snow, DA & White,(2005) Together Alone in Public places (reprint 2019) University of California press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520938908
M, Timothy, Osberg & Courtney R. Doxbeck (2021) Partying during a pandemic: role of descriptive partying norms, residence, college alcohol beliefs, and political ideology in COVID-19 party behavior, Journal of American College Health, DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2021.2008400
Jane BAMBI Drew 
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