Pizza and pints

Beer flowed freely and pizza vanished quickly in Ida Noyes's otherwise vacant basement. Last Thursday night students, staff, and faculty members piled into the Pub's dimly lit Wisconsin oak booths for suds and slices at this summer's first ORCSA–sponsored pub night.

The event began shakily for ORCSA campus activities coordinator Dana Bozeman. Looking around at 5:15 p.m., she saw 20 pizzas cooling while a scattershot of mostly grad students nursed free beer. A few students took advantage of the library–like quiet to study their Arabic. But 30 minutes later Bozeman was standing at the door, commanding, "Get your tickets! That is, unless you don't like free drinks." The turnout was surprising. "We didn't expect this many people," she said. "Maybe it's because we advertised on Facebook." Whatever she did, it worked. Soon she was telling the event's 100 attendees to be patient; more pizza was on the way.

The pizza's second–round arrival signaled the hungry to jostle for position. By 7 p.m. Bozeman looked around: a drink-ticket roll was a slender shadow of its former girth, and pizza boxes littered a dark corner. With appetites sated and drinks enjoyed, cue balls and foosballs went on the move.

The final summer pub night will be held August 2.

Ethan Frenchman, '08

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Photos (left to right): Center for Middle Eastern Studies graduate students hit the books; patrons sit at the bar; community members line up for pizza.

July 11, 2007