Shooters Saloon bans non-Duke students on Wednesday nights

For the rest of the school year, the Duke University bar, Shooters Saloon, will not allow non-Duke students to enter on Wednesday nights.

The decision by Kim Cates, the bar’s owner and Durham native, was announced on Facebook last week. In the post, Cates also said she would be willing to open the bar up on an off night for non-Duke students. 

While Cates vowed to prevent UNC students from entering the bar entirely in November — which she soon retracted — making Wednesday nights Duke-only is nothing new.

“This is something we do every year at the beginning of April for the seniors because it’s their last month,” Cates said.

This has been a tradition at Shooter’s for about five years. 

“Wednesday night was invented by Duke students, and we have built it up when we had just five students coming in. We have considered it their night,” she said.

While Cates cites some issues with UNC students, she also stressed she has had problems with the general public. Students from universities all over the state go to Shooters, and they too will not be allowed to enter on Wednesday nights.

But still she's had some issues with UNC students in the past.

“They come in here chanting ‘Tar.' Heels.’ Why would you come in chanting ‘Tar.'Heels’ at a Duke bar? Then they come in here with bottles strapped around their bodies,” Cates said.

While some may think it would be to differentiate Duke and UNC students on the regular nights, Cates said she knows who the Duke students are pretty well since they’ve been going to Shooters for years, some of whom she sees three nights a week.

“When UNC students come in, the Duke student population drops because they push. The Duke students end up leaving when they are here. And I’m not making anything off the bar because they are bringing their own liquor,” she said.

She also said she has worked with UNC students one-on-one to try to find a solution. It’s what pushed her to allow UNC students back into the bar after the initial ban in November.

Chloe Williams, a UNC sophomore from Charlotte majoring in public policy and political science, is not a fan of the new Shooters policy. 

“It’s a poor business model. Shooters draws in a lot of students from around the Triangle, and they’re only hurting their own profits by restricting Wednesday’s to Duke students only," said Williams. "It being for seniors isn’t a valid argument because they still let freshmen in with a Duke ID. The owners need to let it be a free-for-all, better for their bottom line.” 

Tejas Kashyap, a Duke first-year majoring in chemistry, said Shooters is a private institution and has the right to determine who to let in. 

“It’s intended to be a meeting place for Duke students," said Kashyap. "However, I don’t think that it’s entirely correct to reject all UNC students on Wednesday nights, unless they did something to provoke it."

Cates said she’d be more than willing to have a UNC night if people reached out to her.

“I offered them their own nights on off nights. I don’t understand," she said. 

"I offered them a night just for UNC. I’d be more than happy to do that for you."

arts@dailytarheel.com