Matt Kelly

Michael Mabe, Gary Juskowicik and Susan Lund established the Tuttle Coffeehouse.

Student trio pushes for late-night joe

By Matt Kelly

An idea that started out as a coffee stand has grown into a U.Va. institution - The Tuttle Coffeehouse.

Three students, Gary L. Juskowiak II, Michael Kay Mabe and Susan Lund established an alcohol-free venue where students can hang out late on weekends.

Mabe and Juskowiak were members of the First Year Council, and Lund a council alternate, when they were handed an idea they said some deans had been kicking around - a mobile coffee cart in the Tuttle lounge. The trio transformed the idea.

"It started out so simple and then became so complicated that it went into the second year," said Mabe, who with Juskowiak is graduating this year. Lund has transferred to the nursing school.

The Tuttle Coffeehouse is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until 2 a.m., with the lounge itself open 24 hours a day. The large lounge has been subdivided with partial walls into spaces where students can congregate. There are tables and sofas and student art hanging on the wall. A variety of entertainers, including student bands and others, perform regularly. An array of coffee and fruit drinks, as well as some food, are served.

Juskowiak said there was nothing in the immediate area for first-year students, forcing them to travel to get to events. He said the coffeehouse provides students with a community center. And while the initial focus had been on giving the students something to do on the weekend, use of the space for a variety of events and activities has increased.

"And you see people studying here at all hours too," Lund noted.

Mabe stressed that as students, they had been able push through the idea.
"We were just a group of students but the University officials listened to us," she said. "They had their doubts the first and second year, but if a student has an idea here, they can carry it through. There is a great appreciation of student ideas at the University."

The three students worked out their ideas, presented them to the appropriate administrators, worked with a designer the University hired, defended their plan on a few crucial points and prevailed.

Suzanne Harman, area coordinator for the Dean of Students and Residence Life and Housing Division, said the coffeehouse has been very successful, especially considering the amount of responsibility first-year students took on.

"Tuttle performances attracted nearly 700 people throughout the Fall semester," she said. "It's a small venue - the lounge only holds 133 people, so that's a good turnout for weekend programming put on by first-year students for first-year students."

Juskowiak, who said the trio saw an opportunity and jumped on it, said the whole process gave him confidence at being able to work through the system. He said succeeding first-year councils have worked on the coffeehouse as well.