On Thursday night, The Ticker was shut down abruptly. In the midst of the usual party chaos of a Thursday night, people were ushered out of the building and required to show their IDs to what appeared to be law enforcement officials. Brynn Afton ’23 recalled that students didn’t know what was going on. “Everyone was really confused about what was happening because we have never experienced The Ticker being shut down in the middle of a Thursday night and we have never seen that many law enforcement vehicles outside,” said Afton. The next morning, rumors were swarming around as to possible explanations. But also, a question came up: would it be open before Saturday?
Waking up on Friday, many students feared that The Ticker might’ve been shut down for good. Not since Spring 2020 has the campus been secure in knowing that The Ticker would remain open. Having closed over COVID-19 and opening up only to close again, The Ticker has had a capricious existence compared to its previous position of being a staple of SLU culture in the past. Of course, in reacting to The Ticker’s temporary closing, students have had conflicting reactions. Some were relieved that The Ticker was under a possible investigation after several students have made complaints about the atmosphere in The Ticker.
In recent months, SLU partygoers have grown weary of the environment inside of The Ticker. Some have complained about the aggressiveness of the bouncers and others have complained about the crowdedness making it hard to move around anywhere. On the other hand, other students were also annoyed that they might not be able to enjoy The Ticker for the rest of the semester if the rumors were true. Some students were even apprehensive about returning to The Ticker after everything went down, because in the confusion of the night, they feared possibly getting in trouble under stricter monitoring in the future.
Rumors were put to rest when the Tick Tock Inn Instagram posted an image with the caption “Happy Saturday! Ticker is definitely open tonight! See you soon.” Not even a couple days after the incident, The Ticker was back open. After some of the staff completed mandatory training, The Ticker opened back up with a staff fully prepared for an influx of partygoers that are usual for a Saturday night. However, as The Ticker has opened back up for the weekend, many students are hopeful for the future of The Ticker and are eased at the thought that it is being monitored more closely than before.
Hopefully, the environment of The Ticker will make a return to The Ticker that SLU students were accustomed to in years past. With its reopening, we are excited for the rest of the semester to enjoy one of the major staples of SLU’s social life.