The Pit pub still a UBC staple at 50
Alumni meet Wednesday to toast campus’ first student bar, inspired by Suzuki article
David Suzuki has made a career out of stirring the pot as a scientist, environmentalist and TV host.
Lesser known is the impact he had on drinkers at the University of British Columbia.
In October 1968, Suzuki wrote an opinion piece for UBC Reports titled What This Campus Need is a Pub.
It was slightly tongue-incheek: One of his arguments was “the passions of commitment to reactionary or revolutionary ideals would be tempered by the effects of alcohol.”
But it struck a chord. A committee was formed to look at putting a pub in UBC’s new Student Union Building, and on Nov. 28, 1968, a beer garden was held in the SUB “party room.”
They called it the Pit, after another Suzuki suggestion. “We used to meet at the Fraser Arms (for a drink), so I thought ‘Fraser Arm Pit,’ ” explains Suzuki.
In 1969, the Pit found a permanent home in the basement of the SUB. In 2015, it was moved to a new student building, The Nest.
Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., the Alma Mater Society will mark the pub’s 50th anniversary by unveiling a mural of Suzuki’s 1968 article in the pub.
Suzuki will be on hand for the celebration.
“To my amazement, (the article) got published, and the kids kind of took it up and eventually it happened,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m pleased to get credit for it.”
The article was inspired by Suzuki’s experience attending university in the United States.
“In the States, professors have a very different kind of a relationship with students,” said Suzuki, 82.
“I went to a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts, and every professor, for each course, had an allotment of money that was for entertainment of the students.
“For the last lecture in my botany course, (the professor) bought a keg of beer. We went out in the woods and he said, ‘We’re going to look at the plants.’ He pointed out a few plants and then we got to the end of the trail and there was a keg of beer, and we drank it.”
When Suzuki became an associate professor of zoology at UBC in 1963, he was shocked to find faculty had a much more “formal relationship” with students. So he advocated opening a pub, as a way to break down barriers.
“I really believe that the exciting moments that happen in teaching are when you are in a much closer relationship, not a big classroom, but a more intimate relationship,” said Suzuki, who retired from UBC in 2001.
“And all kinds of things happen that are part of your education. For me, having a pub on campus would be a real great avenue for that.”
His essay coincided with a movement to open a bar at UBC. On Sept. 23, 1968, 50 students staged a “pub-in” protest.
“Without backing from their Alma Mater Society, the students spent their lunch break drinking beer outside a new $5-million Student Union Building,” reported the Sun’s Robin Taylor. “Half a dozen of them celebrated with a bottle of red wine, sipped from long-stemmed glasses. Groovy music from a group with electronic guitars attracted 300 more students to the proceedings.”
A provincial government minister was not amused, stating “beer on campus is unconducive to learning.” But the students were undeterred, and the Pit would become a UBC institution.
Today, the pub is only open to the public on Wednesdays.
But the Alma Mater Society’s marketing and communications manager, Eric Lowe, said it’s still popular, drawing big lineups.
“We opened another restaurant at the top of the building, that drew more people away from the Pit,” he said.
“So it’s open one day a week to the public, but is still used almost seven days a week by clubs that hold events there.”