Ursa’s Nite Life is seeing an increase in attendance at their social events after spending a significant portion of last year closed and unattended.

This year, it is not unusual to see waves of students enjoying the space and the programming it has to offer. Students are increasingly taking advantage of the numerous events that occur during any given week.

Skyler Kessler | Student Life

Ursa’s neon sign is a new addition to its facade. Recently, Ursa’s has been ramping up activity by hosting new events.

Ursa’s organizers said the heightened use of the space might be due to improved access—Ursa’s is open for longer hours and no longer has a rental fee—and more regular weekly programming.

Although the consistency of events has increased, Ursa’s still puts on the same number of programs this year as last year: six per month. However, the first event of this year saw an attendance of 250 people, sophomore Dylan MacDonald, operations manager for Ursa’s Nite Life, said.

“Last year, events were much less talked about and poorly attended. This year we’ve stepped up our game,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald said that Ursa’s is now also easier to reserve by student groups, a possible reason for the space’s current success.

“If a club wants to make a program, they’ll present it to me, and as long as it doesn’t conflict with anything else on the schedule and is non-exclusive, I will present it to the board [which supervises Ursa’s], where we will decide to what extent we want to collaborate on the program,” MacDonald said.

The elimination of the rental fee also helped increase accessibility for student groups.

“The benefit of collaboration is that we provide the space for free, whereas in the past there was a small fee, which I think was significant enough to potentially deter some clubs from programming in Ursa’s,” Zach Romo, academic initiatives advisor and co-advisor to the Ursa’s board, said.

Ethan Goldstein, student leadership advisor for Residential Life and co-advisor, along with Romo, to the Ursa’s board, sees a few potential explanations for the increase in popularity despite the same number of programs.

Goldstein noted that last year, there was little consistency with programming until spring semester, which may have caused many to ignore or forego Ursa’s events.

“This year, we decided to change things up this year and add a little more consistency in the programming. For example, every Friday, we have an event, Hangout Friday,” Goldstein said.

Hangout Friday is a program that relies on free food and the promise of a good time with friends for its success, which arose from students posting anonymously on Yik Yak and the Facebook page Wash. U. Confessions about lonely Fridays.

The increased popularity may also be attributed to some other changes. In an effort to improve publicity and the aesthetic appeal of the space, a glowing neon that reads “Ursa’s Nite Life” in bright purple letters now adorns the bricks right above the entrance to Ursa’s.

The hours the space is open for use have also changed due to a shift this past August, when resident adviser duty was moved from the Residential Life annex into Ursa’s, allowing the building to stay open for longer.

“I think one of the biggest differences is that Ursa’s as a space wasn’t open as frequently last year. It was really only open when we had events. Now it’s open 1:30 p.m. to midnight on weekends and 5 p.m. to midnight on weekdays,” Goldman said.

While Ursa’s has had great success in recent months, it is looking at ways to make the venue even more popular in the future. Although hot food was taken out of Ursa’s in the spring of 2013, the current board is looking at options to bring back some kind of food or drink option other than vending machines.

“It’s kind of a constant discussion on whether or not we’re going to try to get something back in there. Maybe it can be a cafe…If they [the student body] want to see coffee in there at nights and make it a very sociable space, we can try to do that,” Romo said.