Seymour’s Pub. Clad in dark toned hardwoods, with posters crying the next UFC match hung next to televisions displaying the PGA tour, it seems at first blush to be a sports bar. Yet, towards the back of the joint, there hangs a disco ball from the ceiling, and a smattering of spotlights designed to create a dance floor atmosphere.
Rob Ardagh, a frequenter of Seymour’s, sees the place as “sort of a Coliseum of failed dancing intentions,” which plays music he acknowledges as “pretty godawful.” Ardagh feels that, while the management of this establishment has tried to walk the line between being an actual pub and a trendier spot for the youth, “it ... fails at both and creates its own weird identity.”
As evaluated by Ardagh, “[Seymour’s] has bad lighting, and a cliquey table layout ... where two out of four people will have their backs turned to the majority of the people.” The grievances, however, did not end there. He took issue with the crowd that was drawn to the place, consisting of “the international crowd that seems to come in from the holiday inn ... [and] an older trucker type.”
This past Thursday, Seymour’s was meant to host a convergence of Capilano Students’ Union (CSU) executives, Courier staff, and members of the Capilano University student body. Unfortunately, the event had few attendees, and bewildered looks adorned the faces of the few who had come expecting a party of some magnitude.
Amongst those who were present, the consensus was one of discontent with the facilities provided, with one source who wished to remain nameless stating bluntly, “Mosquito Creek beats the s*** out of this place.”
Cory Brewer, a first year Capilano Student, said that, “if you go to UBC or SFU or to UVic, there’s [sic] pubs, there’s bars on campus ... if you go to Capilano University ... there’s no way you can meet other students other than in classes, or going [all the way] to Seymour’s.”
As Brewer put it, “we need a pub, or we need a bar, on campus. I know it’ll take a couple of years and I know how much work it is, but it’s worth it.” Ardagh joined in the chorus for an on-campus drinking establishment, even suggesting that, “In fact, like the U-Pass, some of the fees we pay should go towards the pitchers [offered at the bar].”
The student body of our young university deserves something other than, “an observation deck into either drunken or slightly awkward attempts to get something going,” according to Ardagh, for a dance hall. He asserted that, “we need a pub because we’re growing up as a school and the average age of our students is increasing.”
“You go to Capilano University and it’s terrible because there’s nowhere to meet people ... because there’s no bar or pub on campus,” says Brewer. Nine out of 10 slightly sauced students agreed that it is time that we were freed from the musty carpets and grating Girl Talk remixes of Seymour’s. One such student stated, “now that we’re a university, as part of maturing ... we must have a campus pub, or else how are we showing our newfound maturity?”
Near the end of the night, gesturing blearily at the plastic tables and chairs arranged outside, Ardagh offered the final nail for the coffin: “You can’t smoke outside on the patio anymore, and it’s pissing me right off.”
//Max MacKay
Staff Writer
