Nights at the JJ: Jammin’ Java

It’s Saturday night, and there’s nothing to do. You’ve finished your homework, you’ve already watched season one of Grey’s Anatomy–twice–and you don’t want to drive out to Wayne or Philadelphia.

What can you do? Go to the Jammin’ Java.

Starting this semester and continuing next semester, there will be local entertainment at the Jammin’ Java every Saturday night at 8 p.m. The coffee shop will also be open to serve drinks and meals, offering an atmosphere of relaxation and community.

Saturday nights at the Jammin’ Java was the brain child of Paul Daigle, coordinator of Student Activities and advisor for SAB. He saw the need to have something for students to do on Saturday nights.

“I’ve heard so many students complain that they (Jammin’ Java) close at 3 p.m. on Friday and don’t reopen until Sunday,” Daigle said of previous years. “Every Saturday night there’s at least something going on.”

Daigle went to Steve Jacke, retail and marketing manager of Sodexo, and Ed Collins, resident district manager of Sodexo, to ask for the Jammin’ Java to be open Saturday nights. They were very receptive to the idea.

“Sunday wasn’t very popular, customer-wise,” Jacke said. “Keeping students on campus on the weekend is a hard thing to do.”

However, they soon realized that they could not simply add Saturday nights to the Jammin’ Java schedule. Due to contract issues with Sodexo and the budget they get from the company and Eastern, Jammin’ Java could only switch hours from one night to the other instead of adding both nights.

Due to this factor, on top of last-minute publicity, Saturday nights at the Jammin’ Java have not received much attention, but Daigle is not giving up. 

In fact, he is determined to get more diverse groups to perform in the future, including poetry readers, local bands and others. However, there is a small budget set for booking these gigs, so many of the bands will either have to accept minimal pay or play for free.

In the end, whether Jammin’ Java Saturday nights succeed or not will be determined by the customers. According to Terrence Scott, supervisor of Sodexo, they will take all comment cards into consideration next year concerning whether the Jammin’ Java will continue to be open Saturdays or not.

“It makes more business sense to serve the ones that will be here,” Scott said.