It is 2:30 in the afternoon, and students are bustling from class to class as the sun beats down with unusual fall intensity.

Risman Plaza is filled with miniskirts and backpacks. Friends embrace after the weekend and discuss how they hate Mondays.

The campus is a swarm of clicking heels and fraternity shirts, but one flight down to the lower level of the Student Center, tucked curiously adjacent to the bright lights of the Cyber Café, is something else. Something a little darker.

“It’s so dark and mellow down here. I like it,” says freshman education major Samuel Bennett as he picked up his sandwich from Pete’s Arena.

The Rathskeller Sports Bar, known to most as The Rathskeller or The Rat, is Kent State’s underground hangout and lounge, home to Pete’s Arena, a pizza shop, and the only bar on campus. But to some, it’s much more.

“The people down here are less uppity,” says Craig Snell, a sophomore business major. “I feel more at home here.”

Home indeed.

The restlessness and noise of the rest of campus dissipates as one enters the double doors. Flashes of light spark as cigarettes are lighted, and a voice booms from the sound system.

“Order number 487,” it shrieks, as a student puts down her textbook and walks to pick up her breadsticks and chicken Caesar salad.

A few feet up sits the Rathskeller stage, which has featured performances ranging from local band Unicron to a drag queen named Candy. Sometimes, it is also the stage of not-so-sober renditions of Sir Mix-A-Lot and Michael Jackson during Thursday’s weekly karaoke.

Turn to your left, and there you’ll see those whom you could call “The Rat Pack.”

“That’s our playful nickname,” Snell says of his friends. “I don’t know if people really call us that, but it’s what we feel like sometimes.”

And how did they earn that nickname?

“Lots of time is spent here,” he jokes.

A lot of that time is spent talking, but The Rat is also known for offering a lot of things to do, he says. Of those activities are a pool table and two interactive computer screens lined up on the bar where a student plays poker.

His electronic hand of an ace and a jack is interrupted as cheers erupt from behind the bar stools. One student comes dangerously close to whacking the unsuspecting poker player in the head with his pool stick.

Lined up, pulled back and a quick clack, clack – the source of all the cheering had just made the eight ball in and won the daily afternoon matchup.

Everyone looks up from their conversations and coffee. A quick smile. A quick roll of the eyes. These people are like family – even though they don’t all know each other.

“Everything else feels really cafeteria-like,” says freshman exploratory major Kat Rybski. “It’s so laid back down here. You don’t feel like people are staring at you all the time; they’re actually interested in being your friend.”

The excitement dies down and the quick chatter starts up again. The keg cooler from the bar buzzes intermittently and cigarette smoke hazes the already mellow lighting. The Rathskeller is one of two places on campus that allows smoking inside – a huge draw for many who hang out there. The other smoking room is located upstairs on the third floor of the Student Center.

A table in the corner holds five smokers deep in conversation. They watch each other intently while practicing how to French exhale and decide the best way to handle the most recent relationship struggle. Snell takes a hit from his cigar and slowly blows the inhaled smoke out and inhales it again through his nose. Brooke Livezey, a freshman at the Kent State Stark campus who visits her friends at main campus regularly, compares the exhale to Snoop Dogg.

“That’s straight up gangsta,” she jokes.

Others at the table try, but to no avail. Along with smoking, tattoos and body piercings are not odd to see down here, in fact they’re welcome.

Click, light, inhale.

“I got a new girlfriend,” exclaims Ally Oulton, sophomore American Sign Language major.

“So soon?” jokes Snell.

“Hey! She’s allowed to live it up,” Livezey says.

“The funny thing is I met her through my ex-girlfriend’s new girlfriend,” Oulton says.

Exhale.

The cigarette and cigar smoke floats above the heads of its former hosts. It creeps past the photos of old golf, football and volleyball teams and jerseys. These particular members of the Rat Pack don’t seem to notice the history hanging on the walls.

Click, light, inhale.

“I slept through class again,” Rybski shares sheepishly.

“What?” Bennett, her boyfriend, asks.

“I didn’t mean to!” she says. “I didn’t know my alarm was on vibrate. I’ll get better. I really want to do good this semester.”

“Yeah, you have to have a flow,” Bennett adds.

Exhale.

Gray smoke twists in circles joining the smoke from other Rat packers. Conversations range from the possibility of the universe being the size of a cinnamon roll to Charles Bukowski poetry to the Pope’s remarks on Islam.

The Rathskeller Sports Bar serves liquor from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The sitting area is open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Snell and the others have those hours pretty much memorized.

“Yeah, we’re here a lot,” they joke, all nodding.

“I don’t even go here, and I know it’s where all the cool kids hang out,” Livezey says.

Oulton gets up to leave. Her French exhaling practice must be put on hold for her last class of the day. Goodbyes are exchanged as she makes her rounds to the other tables.

“When do you get out of class?” one person shouts.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” she calls back, making her way up to the clicking heels and sunlight.

Jackie Mantey is a junior magazine journalism major. This is her second time writing for The Burr. Contact her at jmantey@kent.edu.