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OPINION & EDITORIAL

Save University Square Theater

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by Julie Isen

Friday, April 1, 2005

Allow me to share with you an ideal and unrivaled movie experience currently available downtown:

It is midnight on a Friday or Saturday after a long week of classes/midterms/projects. Instead of going out to a bar, you and your friends have decided to take it easy and go to a movie. You walk to University Square and buy your tickets at the only place in town that has a student price that is also continuously on the rise. Once you get to your seat, since there are still a few minutes before the movie starts, you decide to go get a beer. That’s right, a beer and a movie; of course, the beer is completely optional. There is also ice cream and pretzels available.

If you missed dinner or just have more ravenous late-night munchies, you can also buy a burger or nachos and have it delivered to your seat that conveniently has a table in front of it. Then the movie starts. The energetic and enthusiastic crowd mostly comprised of college students, some notably inebriated, add to the thrill of the horror movie/comedy/drama you are about to see. It is really an unparalleled experience the university has to offer and is well worth the $4.75 admission.

The opportunity to take part in this unique Friday or Saturday night event is about to end with the demolition of University Square. This also means that, due to Madison’s urban sprawl, there will no longer be a movie theater within walking distance from downtown. This doesn’t count the Orpheum, of course, which doesn’t play current movies that are out at other theaters.

With the university administration attempting to rid us of our reputation of being a top binge-drinking campus, tearing down one of the few popular non-bar establishments near campus doesn’t seem like the best idea. And, sure, there is beer at University Square Theater, but that is not the purpose for it. While there are many other things for sober people to do on the weekends, going to a movie should be a viable option for those of us without cars.

UW, using the plans set forth by the Facilities and Planning Management Committee (FPM), will be taking over the University Square area to build new residence halls, the bursar’s office, and a new UHS building, among other things. Although the theater is my main concern as a student, students are not the only ones who are patrons of the University Square center. The UW must not discount the adults not in school who live in and visit Madison.

The university may not necessarily have to build a new UHS facility or a new bursar’s office, but it does need new residence halls— this point is not in question.

As of now, unlike other Big Ten schools, UW guarantees housing for only in-state students. Currently, three-fourths of freshmen are housed in University Housing each year, and one-fourth of those students stay for their sophomore years.

To create additional space for freshmen, University Housing also plans to tear down and rebuild Ogg Hall this summer and build new dorms at the corner of Park and Dayton streets. The Ogg Hall renovation will include two new six-story residence halls.

Steve Brown, the student-housing guru of Madison, went on the record last year as being opposed to the expansions, citing a survey from 2004 which showed 70 percent of adults in Madison opposed the construction and thought there was a lack of evidence that more space is needed. Though I disagree with Brown in that I believe there should be more public residence hall spaces for students, I do believe the administration and FPM should reconsider their plans.

It is important in matters such as this, which will change the face of downtown, to find a middle ground that can make most people happy. The current plan for University Square is unfortunately not a compromise that takes everyone into consideration.

Julie Isen (jbisen@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in political science.

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Anonymous (April 1, 2005 @ 4:53am):

If they tear down University Square, they'd better build a replacement somewhere! I don't like having to go out of downtown to see a movie!

Anonymous (April 1, 2005 @ 10:41am):

If I had a dollar for every time I urinated in University Square and broke those parking entrance guard rails, I'd be a rich man!!

Save the Square!!!!!

Anonymous (April 1, 2005 @ 11:39am):

As long as Associated Bank opens up somewhere close, I don't give a shit.

-klemz

Anonymous (April 1, 2005 @ 2:37pm):

Here's why are are stupid Julie -- you are argue that part of fighting binge drinking on campus involves saving a drinking establishment.

Anonymous (April 1, 2005 @ 6:15pm):

"Here's why are are stupid Julie --"

And Julie are not the only thing one stupid bumpkin! You is stoopid tew!

Anonymous (January 6, 2006 @ 1:10pm):

Although I agree that it it provides a cheap alternative to drinkingseems and that it is unfair that the only movie theater within walking distance is being torn down; however, the cell phone checking, obnoxiously loud, intoxicated patrons that attend the theater take away from this bad movie experience that is anything but nostalgic or enjoyable.