
Courtesy of Julia Simon
Gryphon’s Pub — Yale’s only graduate and professional student-run bar and community space — is set to close for seven months, from January 2026 to July 2026, for building renovations aimed at modernizing the facility and improving accessibility.
While the long-awaited improvements are a milestone for the building, the shutdown has generated mixed reactions, primarily concerns about Gryphon’s future, and the social, financial and emotional void its absence may leave across the graduate and professional student community.
“This isn’t just a bar,” said Julia Simon GRD ’27, director of Gryphon’s. “It’s a space that enables interdisciplinary friendships and helps students find their footing at Yale. It’s the heartbeat of the G&P experience.”
But beginning in January 2026, that heartbeat will go quiet.
The renovation, driven by advocacy from Gryphon’s and the Graduate & Professional Student Senate and approved by the University, will add an elevator to make all of 204 York Street ADA and code-compliant. Construction, overseen by the University, will also include the addition of gender-neutral bathrooms, refurbishment of existing bathrooms, new signage, new handrails and improved lighting. These improvements aim to ensure that students with mobility challenges can fully make use of all public floors of the building, Simon said.
However, Gryphon’s staff and GPSS leadership say the closure risks becoming more than just temporary. Without the space, revenue or staffing infrastructure to operate in any capacity during the shutdown, many worry that Gryphon’s may not reopen at all.
“The renovation could very well occur — and the pub and community center that currently inhabit this space may not,” said Simon. “We are at a tipping point.”
In 2024 alone, the pub hosted more than 50,000 student visits and 285 private events, including recruitment mixers and cultural showcases, in addition to Gryphon’s own events like karaoke and trivia nights, according to Simon. Its signature “cover waiver” program, which offers unlimited entry for a fixed annual fee, drew over 2,500 students.
A win for accessibility
The elevator project represents a critical victory for Gryphon’s Pub and GPSS, which has advocated for facility and accessibility upgrades at 204 York since at least 2012.
The building presents many concerning accessibility issues that prevent many disabled G&P students from using the space dedicated to them. For example, the Senate chambers on the third floor are currently only accessible by two flights of stairs, excluding wheelchair users or others with low mobility from key spaces where meetings, storage and programming occur.
“If a person who uses a wheelchair were elected GPSS President, they would never be able to actually use the GPSS Chambers under their purview, and frankly, it was an embarrassing realization that GPSS continued to operate meetings in the Chambers until 2020,” said Sara Siwiecki GRD ’26, GPSS Public Relations Committee Chair. “General Senate meetings are open to all graduate and professional students to attend, so our space must be accessible to all students.”
In 2020, during the COVID-19 shutdown, the GPSS shifted meetings out of the Chambers and into accessible areas of Gryphon’s Pub and revised its bylaws to allow hybrid participation.
However, 204 York Street remained ADA noncompliant.
“Given that Yale has limited space and there have been previous reports of student organizations losing space from Yale buildings, we did not have the choice to ask to move to a different, accessible building. 204 York St was also designated by Yale as a Graduate & Professional Student Center since the 1970s, so we strongly preferred to continue our operations at our long-time home,” said Siwiecki.
With the renovation now on track, GPSS and Gryphon’s are celebrating a win they believe will benefit the building’s users for generations.
Still, Siwiecki also acknowledged that the renovation’s benefits come with unintended consequences.
“We are working actively with Gryphon’s to ensure the Pub can come back better than ever,” she said. “Yale has an old campus, and 204 York St. is not the only building with major accessibility needs, but GPSS and Gryphon’s are proud to have advocated for this improvement and for Yale to be making this a priority.”
Student-run but not University-funded
The mixed reactions come in light of the unintended consequences of the pub’s student-led structure, which makes its operations especially vulnerable during a prolonged closure. Unlike typical student organizations, Gryphon’s uses profits from sales to subsidize liquor and space rental costs, host events and employ students. It manages its own insurance, liquor license, payroll and utilities.
The University has emphasized that while it provides rent-free access to 204 York, it considers Gryphon’s programmatically independent, meaning it is responsible for sustaining itself without institutional financial support.
“After COVID, the hardest part wasn’t reopening,” said Traci LaMoia GRD ’24, Gryphon’s finance manager. “It was rebuilding staff, culture, and community from scratch.”
Simon worries that history could repeat itself, especially since the University has declined to provide bridge funding, alternate venues or logistical support for temporary pop-up events during the 2026 renovation, despite appeals from GPSS and Gryphon’s leadership.
Simon reflected that Gryphon’s staff members feel frustrated that, after years of asking the University to address the building’s accessibility issues, they are now finally doing so with little to no consideration for the impact on the Gryphon’s community.
“The university is investing in the building and in accessible community-building for G&P students,” Simon said. “But whether Gryphon’s reopens to welcome that community inside the building or returns is not their concern.”
Under current plans for the renovation, Gryphon’s stands to lose their ballroom stage and sound booth to make room for the elevator shaft — a blow to the pub’s ability to quickly transform the space for flexible event programming. Additional fire safety upgrades threaten to eliminate liquor storage space and soda distribution lines.
The physical changes will likely reduce the pub’s overall capacity and constrain the type and size of events it can host.
“We’ve gone from being able to throw everything from quiet gatherings to wall-to-wall dance nights to having to rethink every square foot,” Simon said.
LaMoia highlighted her worries about longer lines, lower occupancy thresholds and overall reduced revenue.
However, the most immediate impact may be financial. According to LaMoia, Gryphon’s employs around 30 graduate and professional students, most of whom earn an average of $900 per month. The bar’s flexible nighttime hours make it uniquely compatible with students’ academic schedules.
“Gryphon’s has allowed me to actually put money towards my student loans and live more than paycheck to paycheck,” said Anthony Isenhour GRD ’26, who serves as Gryphon’s inventory manager. “I will have to weather the gap with a significant loss of income. As a PhD student, I at least can rely on my stipend, but other staff members who are in Yale’s professional schools will not be so lucky.”
With no transitional job placement or University financial support on the horizon, staff are bracing for income loss.
“With the closure, we have to explore other options for work, ” Isenhour added. “But nobody hires for just seven months.”
Lives and livelihoods
For many of Gryphon’s staff, the shutdown is not just a professional challenge: it’s a personal upheaval.
Oved Rico MUS ’25, a bartender and karaoke DJ at Gryphon’s, joined the team to break out of the social bubble of his program at the School of Music. He said the job allowed him to meet classmates from across the University — students studying law, engineering, public health and more. Now, as he contemplates extending his master’s degree, the closure is forcing him to weigh whether staying in New Haven is financially viable.
“Gryphon’s helped make grad school livable,” said Rico. “I came from the arts school, and this was my way to meet people in medicine, law, business, architecture, people I’d never cross paths with otherwise.”
“This was my main income,” he said. “Without it, I might have to leave.”
Staff also emphasized the pub’s social utility. Gryphon’s serves as a launchpad for communities across otherwise siloed schools. They noted the pub as a place for celebrating milestones, letting off steam and forging connections that outlast programs.
“Every graduate student has a Gryphon’s story,” Isenhour said.
Ren Stevens, who currently works as a bouncer at Gryphon’s, told the News that she fears that, between the loss of employees to graduation and the loss to other gigs during the renovation, “we won’t have the personnel or generational knowledge to revive the bar and train a full new staff.”
The loss also threatens student life more broadly. Gryphon’s is the only dedicated space on campus where students from all graduate and professional schools can socialize under one roof on campus. Its staff says the pub offers something that no departmental happy hour or formal school mixer can replicate: a low-stakes, welcoming environment where spontaneous connections are the norm.
“I feel like what Gryphon’s does for the graduate school community is so expansive that it’s hard to briefly encapsulate,” said Stevens. “Our lounge is booked out nearly every single night as a space to host different Yale affinity group meetings, birthdays, thesis defense parties, and more. We host dozens of recruitment events each year for different graduate programs and I’ve heard from current students that Gryphon’s was one of the most memorable parts of their recruiting experience.”
An uncertain future
GPSS and Gryphon’s are now exploring contingency plans. GPSS Vice President Saman Haddad LAW ’26 is leading a team of student analysts from the School of Management in conducting financial modeling. Alumni engagement efforts are also in the works. Staff hope that increased attendance this year and donations can help them build a cushion before the shutdown.
Yet, amid the uncertainty, staff remain hopeful.
The renovation marks a huge step in the accessibility of Yale’s campus and the inclusion of disabled students in the G&P community. The improved building will make Gryphon’s Pub a more welcoming place and somewhere that all G&P students can work together to grow and thrive.
“We’re excited about the accessibility gains. We just want to make sure Gryphon’s is still here to welcome everyone back,” Simon said. “We need the community’s support now more than ever.”
All Yale graduate or professional students are automatically awarded membership at Gryphon’s.