Brookens Library announced on Aug. 28 that Mary Jane’s Café will be closed for the rest of the academic year because the coffee shop could not generate enough revenue to keep it afloat.

The Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Tim Barnett, said the café was losing money and “we won’t be opening Mary Jane’s for the time being.”

The shop itself, including Mary Jane’s signs and menus, remains at its location on the lower level of Brookens Library. The closed station is barred while the rest of the area (an extension of Brookens Library) is still open to the public.

Mary Jane’s opened in 2008, named after Mary Jane McDonald, the first librarian of Brookens. The shop was originally operated by Bloomington’s restaurant Bevande Coffee. According to Geoffrey Evans, the Director of UIS Dining Services, Bevande left the café due to money loss a few years ago, and UIS took over the café since then.

Evans is also the one who recommended closing down Mary Jane’s. He said, “The shop lost a lot of money; the revenue wasn’t even close to breaking even. We are an auxiliary so we have to at least break even.”

According to Evans, the loss in revenue was so great that in the evenings they would give coffee away because “It was cheaper giving it away then paying someone to sell it.”

Evans blames the café’s location for closing down this year. “It’s not a great location for a business and we also have an existing coffee shop [Capitol Perks] not very far from that one. Capitol Perks is a great location because it’s coming from the dorms and you have to walk right by it. Because of that, it usually is pretty busy.”

He said Dining Services tried ways to garner more customers for Mary Jane’s by advertising and changing the menus, but it wasn’t enough to increase sales. Evans was also met with little protest from students about closing down the café.

“Some students expressed disappointment, those from the library that come down for a cup of coffee, but I didn’t hear much [negative reaction] about it closing, ” he said.

Evans said Dining Services is always listening to student recommendations at  http://www.uis.edu/foodservice. He said that Mary Jane’s closing was financially the best solution for the University.

It is unknown if Mary Jane’s will reopen in the future. For the meantime students primarily use Mary Jane’s area for a place to sit and work on their laptops. Dean Jane Treadwell, the University Librarian, said that the library is open to student suggestions for activities on the lower level.

“We want to make use of that space for students,” she said; “Poetry readings, book clubs, anything students can come up with, we are really interested.”

Treadwell encourages students to leave suggestions in the comments section under “About Us” at library.uis.edu or stop by the library with their ideas.