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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 28, No. 11. 1965.

Shops, Billiards, Coffee Bar at Otago

page 16

Shops, Billiards, Coffee Bar at Otago

Otago students can book travel tickets, hand in dry cleaning, bank money—all without leaving their Union.

Under Union manager Mr. J. Abbott, their Student Union has become a home for commercial enterprise as well as a meeting and eating place for students.

Further expansion is intended, "We aim to offer in due course a pretty complete range of services," Mr. Abbott told a Salient reporter recently.

Otago's Union is a long one-storey brick building, with a mezzanine floor of offices and a hall at one end. It will eventually be in the centre of the university campus, but at present the only university building nearby is the library.

Many of Otago's students live as close to the university as the Union. A thousand students live in hostels, with common room facilities and dining rooms. The medical and dental students have cafeterias of their own at their schools.

When Completed, Otago's Student Union will look like this. A view along the cafeteria toward the common room, which projects forward to conceal the hall behind.—Critic block.

When Completed, Otago's Student Union will look like this. A view along the cafeteria toward the common room, which projects forward to conceal the hall behind.Critic block.

Dead

When Mr. Abbott became Union manager 18 months ago, he found the place "dead." Now the place hums with activity each day and night, seven days a week.

"We want to encourage folk to think of the Union as a place where you can get what you want," he explained.

To attract students into the Union, he hopes to establish even more commercial services. Like the present ones, these would be branches of established firms.

A hairdressing service is an early aim, a post office has been suggested, and a branch of a department store is a possibility.

Licensed

"We hope to get a licence of some kind here," Mr. Abbott said. "We're not sure what it will be." He hopes that the graduates' association—a strong organisation at Dunedin—will apply for a charter.

However, a licence to supply liquor with meals was an attractive idea.

Each week a staff luncheon is held in the Union, and although most staff live close to the university many attend.

When the second floor is added to the Union, a staff suite will be built. The same additions will also include three religious clubs' rooms and two chaplains' rooms.

The Union Little Theatre should be open for the centenary in May, 1969, Mr. Abbott told Salient.

Plans to convert storage space under the Hall into a Coffee Bar of about 1600 sq ft area will shortly be put into effect. (The comparable size of the Victoria coffee bar is 676 sq ft).

Billiards

Another unusual feature is a billiards room with three billiard tables. The Otago Union has none of Victoria's trouble with card-players, but does have some with billiard players.

"Students must want to come," is the philosophy which controls Mr. Abbott's plans. He says he learned much from Victoria's Union, which is the only other Union of comparable size and age in New Zealand.

Victoria

Salient asked Victoria's managing-secretary, Mr. Ian Boyd, to comment on the Otago Union's commercial development.

Mr. Boyd said that one of the main difficulties was shortage of space. This had to some extent been helped by the university administration's housing banking and postal facilities in other buildings.

Shortage of storage space in the cafeteria shop made it very difficult to offer additional services, Mr. Boyd said.

He predicted that the additional Dining Room facilities provided when the second floor to the Union is built would enable a wider range of services to be offered.

Mr. Boyd said that the Union hours were being continually extended. Sales of a limited range of meals on Saturday was under trial, and the same service had been very successful over the term holidays.

"Judging from last May, we will soon have to open the full cafeteria during term holidays," Mr. Boyd said.

Otago Library was built around this shop. The owner refused to sell and until he does the otherwise completed building cannot be finished. Ironically, the shop is a suburban bookshop.—Critic block.

Otago Library was built around this shop. The owner refused to sell and until he does the otherwise completed building cannot be finished. Ironically, the shop is a suburban bookshop.—Critic block.