College campuses are more than mere classrooms, dormitories and sleep-deprived college students trudging from lecture to lecture. Today’s campuses include a variety of social and food fixtures that provide informal gathering locations for students, faculty and staff alike. These third places, separate from individuals’ homes and places of study or work, offer a respite from the stressors of their domestic and professional lives.
At the University of California, Riverside (UCR), two of the most popular on-campus gathering spaces for students were the Getaway Cafe and Sub Station, both located at the Bannockburn Village apartments on campus.
Getaway Cafe closed its doors on April 29, 2025, after providing members of the campus and local community with a place for conversation, bites and drinks for nearly three decades. Sub Station is also slated to close over the summer as UCR plans to demolish Bannockburn Village; the sandwich place does not offer bar-style drinks, but its wide range of sub and salad options has been a staple for the community since the place opened in 1972.
Although the campus hosts other dining options, including two dining halls and a variety of chains like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Panda Express and Habit Burger & Grill, the appeal of locations like Getaway Cafe and Sub Station was that they were uniquely for UCR students and individually operated.
Without these staple restaurants, the only relatively niche location that students can turn to on campus is The Barn and The Stable, located on 1500 W. Campus Drive near the Humanities and Social Sciences Building.
These places are defined by more than just their menus or the physical buildings alone — they are the lifeline of student social life. The food brought people to the places, but the environment ultimately made places like Getaway Cafe and Sub Station accessible spots on campus where students and others could gather, converse, study and more. It offered a sanctuary for visitors to connect and unwind despite the lows and highs of their day, taking a moment away from the banalities of daily campus life.
Getaway Cafe and Sub Station were shaped into the campus cultural hubs they were because they were lived in by students, not forced upon by the university or generic chain restaurants that could be found at any street corner off campus. These places were not merely manufactured through strategized business practices or branding; instead, they were formed and molded through student presence. A familiarity and understanding between members of the campus community that transcends beyond transactions or food consumption.
The gradual dissolution of these third places reduces the availability of safe spaces on or near campus where students can connect and develop outside structured classroom and academic settings. Without them, the only outlets that remain for students are homogenous and impersonal dining options that prioritize profit and business over community.
Eventually, each year’s incoming class may as well be entering a campus where there are a narrowing range of commercial experiences. All that’s left for tomorrow’s students is a rotation between transactional dining locations devoid of what made spaces like Getaway Cafe and Sub Station uniquely UCR, including the informal spaces that once defined the odd hours and non-academic moments of students’ college careers.
Furthermore, the absence of these environments may affect how students move through their time at UCR. Without gathering spaces independent of their lecture halls and dormitories, students — even those that live on campus — may spend less time in one space and instead cycle between other locations like the campus libraries and local fast food restaurants. Students may no longer have the flexible spaces that allowed them to exist and connect unapologetically; these spots and routines are instead being replaced by chains that prioritize consumption and turnover rather than social cohesion.
Following Getaway Cafe’s closure, The Stable has been the only bar on the UCR campus, forcing student social life to survive within university-operated environments while independently run gathering spaces disappear. Managed by HappiestOurs, a mobile bartending service that brings licensed bartenders to event locations, the After Ours Bar at The Stable offers a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage options, including draft beers, wines, cocktails and mocktails. Additionally, The Barn often hosts live concerts and themed events at its venue, many of which are free to the public.
When social life on college campuses becomes institutionalized rather than individualized and community-driven, campus identity and authenticity of gathering spaces begin to flatten into something that needs to be curated rather than experienced. What remains once these spaces disappear entirely is not community or campus culture but planned programming.
