Open bar attracts Shakespeare, loony scientists
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 4, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 PRIYA SHARMA/Daily Bruin Josh Steirnfeld
(left), dressed as Waldo of "Where’s Waldo?," talks with the Grim
Reaper at GSA’s first Grad Bar of the year on Halloween night.
By Matt Goulding
Daily Bruin Reporter
The piercing notes of a saxophone resonate within the walls of
Kerckhoff Grand Salon as 500 graduate students mingle amidst
remnants of half-empty mai-thais, discarded Brie rinds and
salsa-slathered party plates.
Often disillusioned by the segregated nature of graduate
existence at UCLA, these students laugh and smile for their
newly-found excuses for cohesion: free music, free food and two
well-stocked bars.
“UCLA tends to be a balkanized place where grad students
are all over campus doing all different things,” said Shane
Smith, the Graduate Students Association’s director of
graduate interaction. “We want to give them an opportunity to
hang out and make UCLA a more human place.”
Halloween marked GSA’s first Grad Bar of the year, where
organizers tried to provide a familiar atmosphere for hundreds of
unfamiliar faces.
With the birth of Grad Bar in fall 2000, Smith said the event
quickly became a way for students to interact beyond their
departments.
In the wake of recent reports documenting the number of West
Coast graduate students turning away from the UC system, the
Commission on the Growth and Support of Graduate Education,
appointed by UC President Richard Atkinson, is devising ways to
keep students in California. Citing campus climate as an important
factor in a university’s allure, Vice Chancellor of the
Graduate Division Claudia Mitchell-Kernan praises GSA for being
ahead of the game.
“The GSA deserves a tremendous amount of credit. In a huge
city like L.A., where students are dispersed all over, you need a
sense of community,” Mitchell-Kernan said. “Grad Bar is
a very useful activity in building those bridges. It will make UCLA
a more attractive place.”
 PRIYA SHARMA/Daily Bruin People line up for drinks in
Kerckhoff Grand Salon during Grad Bar, a social mixer for graduate
students. The effervescent harmony of the Richie Glasser Quartet,
mixing melodically with the fragrance of Bombay Sapphire Gin,
beckoned students considering Harvard or Yale for post-graduate
plans.
While free food and live music has consistently drawn students
from every academic niche to Grad Bar, it was booze that got them
out early Wednesday night. The first 100 costumed participants were
greeted with a free libation.
The vibe that followed was a manifestation of North and South
Campus in disguise. Loony lab techs, wearing remnants of
experiments gone awry, sipped crazy alcoholic concoctions while
Shakespeare sucked down English imports.
Amidst the social depolarization, Smith said positive benefits
could arise for zealous graduate students.
“A student from (The Anderson School) could talk to
someone in science and swap ideas concerning some bio-tech idea he
or she has. That type of interdisciplinary conversation could only
help UCLA in the long run,” Smith said.
Others, like second-year graduate acting student Kimberley
Patterson, view Grad Bar’s social landscape differently.
“It’s kind of a weird mixer. It’s clustered into
people coming from the same departments, and sometimes it’s
hard to chit-chat with new people.”
When she has branched out and met new people, Patterson said it
hasn’t always been successful. “I met a bio-tech guy
tonight who decided to tell me that actors were the dumbest people
on the face of the earth,” Patterson said Wednesday.
Nevertheless, GSA President Charles Harless said he hopes the event
can continue to run monthly. “Students do want to meet
people, socialize and have an enjoyable evening of good
conversation,” he said. “That’s what Grad Bar
does.”
The $7.50 students pay at the beginning of each quarter, which
is allocated to a number of services, helps pay for hiring a
musical act and catering service, Harless said. Students pay for
alcohol, but GSA still spends around $1,200 for a single Grad Bar
session.
Those helping with Grad Bar face other concerns, such as
drinking and driving. “There are people roaming through the
facility now, watching to see if anyone is drinking too much and is
looking tipsy,” he said. “If that’s the case, we
take them aside and deal with them in a case-by-case manner. But
that has rarely been a problem.”
For Smith, ambitious undergraduate students looking for a good
time after class have presented a problem in the past. The
consequences, he said, are not as serious, and the solution is much
easier. “I understand, I was an undergrad … but we
can’t let it happen,” Smith said. “If it does, we
just go and talk to them about their research. That weeds them out
pretty quickly.”
