The Hideaway, named by Playboy magazine as one of the best college bars in America, is now only a shadow of its former self, as declining revenues forced its doors shut last spring.
Graduate students in Duke's Business School began the bar in 1974 as a business experiment and it quickly became a favorite among students. Each year students bought shares in the bar, leased space from the university and then sold their stock to the next generation of eager undergraduates.
But the administration felt the bar had become too popular when the number of student-owners rose to 66 in 1998.
"We thought this was too many people involved with the overall management, and no one seemed to take responsibility for the day-to-day-operations," said Sue Wasiolek, Duke assistant vice president for student affairs. "We loaned the business $650,000 to buy out the owners with the arrangement that the number would be reduced to a maximum of 10 owners who would then repay the university."
Last year the students combined to pay $57,214 for their shares and $1,030 per month for rent. A campaign targeting underage drinking reduced profits and the bar regained only 60 percent of what students put in at the beginning of the year. The owners met with the administration on several occasions in an attempt to stretch out the repayment of the debt, but the university refused to compromise.
"I don't think the university should be viewed as an entity that is going to bail out student business ventures that don't work," Wasiolek said.
When the lease ran out on May 31, the owners decided not to recruit a new crop of students.
Former owner Scott Eichel blames the financial crisis on the 1998 restructuring. "Under my reign, investors were making a 25-percent annual return," he said. "Once you put the school in charge of anything concerning fun, they're going to mess it up."
Wasiolek said he doubts the bar's disappearance will have an effect on the social life of the campus. "From what they've indicated, their business has
