Sidelines Pub obtained a full liquor license to create a social atmosphere on campus and serve the growing number of graduate students.
At the Chancellor’s Roundtable last week, Chancellor Daniel L. Ritchie said that he recognized a community desire for the pub to be a social place, especially since the opening of the Law School. The campus has seen an increase in the number of graduate students and therefore, he said, most students are of legal drinking age.
“We decided that we should do things on campus to make sure that nobody was injured or hurt,” said Ritchie. “We’re advocating drinking responsibly.”
Under the liquor license that the University of Denver held prior to December, the pub was allowed to sell only 3.2 beer and wine coolers. But, with the full liquor license that Sodexho now holds, the pub offers patrons a variety of Colorado beers, red and white wine and a special beer of the month.
Students who are legally able to drink and have an extra $3.25 laying around don’t have far to go to get a beer.
“The whole idea is to keep students on campus where they live and go to school,” said Lori Swalander, retail manager of Sodexho. “And we hope to see just as many off-campus students coming as well.”
The pub hasn’t seen a significant increase in patronage this quarter, said Swalander, but she said she thinks that most people don’t realize that it’s now open until 11 p.m.
“The reason that we haven’t noticed new customers is that we haven’t advertised a lot,” said John Nichols, the director of Driscoll Center. “We didn’t do a lot of alcohol service before, so it’s a little early to tell how this is going to affect our business.”
In order to prevent underage drinking, the pub requires customers to show two forms of identification, one of which must be state issued, when buying alcohol. In addition, all employees are TIPS trained. Training for Intervention ProcedureS is a program that teaches servers and sellers of alcohol what to look for with intoxication limits and to recognize underage drinking, according to Swalander.
“There haven’t been any instances of students trying to use fake IDs yet,” she said. “Which is a little surprising since it is a college campus. But it is also encouraging.”
As of right now, the pub has no plans to institute a “happy hour.”
“It’s against company policy because it promotes unsafe drinking and drunk driving,” said Swalander. “We have to take safety precautions.”
But DU is looking to resurrect an old tradition called University Club, according to Nichols.
“University Club is a variation on the theme of happy hour,” he said. “Faculty and students are invited to come for discounts on appetizers, but no discounts on the liquor.”
Students are invited to come check out the new pub, said Swalander. However, students can only pay with cash or credit card. Meal plan or flex cash are not accepted.
