Willy’s Pub closes for remainder of the semester
Graduating seniors may have enjoyed their last taste of cheap beer at Willy’s Pub at Pub Night yesterday, with Pub closing for public events for the semester beginning today.
General Manager Katie Mackall said the board of Valhalla and Willy’s Permits, Inc., a nonprofit holding corporation that oversees Pub, informed the management team this morning that the student-run business would have to close for the remainder of the semester. At this point, Mackall said management is not at liberty to disclose the reason for the closure.
Mackall said previously scheduled events and external sales can still take place; however, Pub cannot organize any new events or sales.
“The direction that we have received is that events that are not open to the general public and have already been organized can still happen,” Mackall, a McMurtry College junior, said. “Because no events have been run by the board so far, I cannot speak to specific events happening at this time or not.”
The V&W Board will meet Monday afternoon to discuss Pub’s status for the rest of the semester, according to B.J. Almond, Rice’s senior director of news and media relations .
“We will reveal what we can when we can if we can and are here for the students but again, currently cannot reveal much information,” Mackall said. “We are sorry for the effect on the student body and want to keep people in the loop but are not able to do so at this time.”
Article will be updated as the story develops.
More from The Rice Thresher
Rice lands high on Niche, Forbes college ranking lists
Rice recently ranked No. 10 on Niche’s Best Colleges in America list and No. 12 on Forbes’ annual America’s Top Colleges list in 2026. It was also recognized in several categories by the Princeton Review, placing in the top 10 in four categories.
From post-human novels to augmented reality, Rice hires new faculty
Rice welcomed 97 new professors this fall across disciplines, including a posthumanist Harvard scholar, a husband-wife duo and a computer science professor who graduated from Rice thrice.
First public of the year reckons with threats of a dry campus
After a Dis-O that saw four times as many calls for intoxication-related transports of students to the hospital compared to the prior three years, Cory Voskanian, a Martel College socials head tasked with planning the first public of the year, said that he was feeling the pressure.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication by The Rice Thresher.