The “dry” campus image the University of Denver has been adamant to uphold will face a new challenge once the Sidelines Pub at the Driscoll University Center starts serving beer and wine following the granting of a full beer and wine liquor license.
The Pub had a 3-2 liquor license, which permits the restaurant to serve wine coolers and beer with a 3.2 volume of alcohol content. With this new license, the Sidelines Pub will be enforcing a tougher filtering system when dealing with students carrying false identification.
The issue was discussed at last week’s AUSA Senate meeting. Student Life Director Carl Johnson brought up the issue of the license at the meeting. He said students ordering beer or wine at the pub will have to show two forms of identification. These two IDs must be a driver’s license and another picture ID. Johnson said some IDs have already been confiscated.
Although senators chuckled at this comment, many agreed to inform students of this new policy. Off-campus Senator Max Goldberg said having this new liquor license is a “great way to pull the DU community together and give it a feeling of being alive.”
Daniel Kast, director of Citizenship & Community Standards, does not see the sale of liquor in an on-campus facility as a problem or a change in policy.
“I don’t believe this is any more of a problem at DU than at other institutions,” Kast said.
Kast believes that the widespread use of fake IDs by students results from the sense of entitlement some students have regarding alcohol.
“It’s as if their presence at college somehow supercedes the legal drinking age,” said Kast, “So long as alcohol use remains an unchallenged part of campus culture, fake or altered IDs will be a problem.”
John Nichols, director of the Driscoll Center, said that both he and Sodexo, the company that oversees the operation of the Sidelines Pub, have been pursuing this matter for a long time.
“We had talked about this for years,” said Nichols. “It was all a matter of convenience and generating revenue. Many times, people holding events here had to bring alcohol from outside with Sodexo setting up the bar.”
Nichols does admit the presence of the new law school helped to put the license through. He said the graduate students had been asking to do social hours in Driscoll, but the lack of the wine and beer license prevented them from holding such events.
Now, Nichols said, he hopes the new license will increase and enhance the service of the building, with students utilizing it more. He said the hours of Sidelines Pub would extend to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Fridays until 10 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
When asked to comment on the issue of DU being a dry campus, Nichols said it will “create interesting dynamics.” He said the Sodexo staff will monitor the number of drinks students have and will “reserve the right to refuse service to anybody.”
