Face-off: Let them drink beer

By By Dan Hoyt

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Students plus alcohol at the Kansas Union does not equal underage drinking.

There is always a possibility that some younger KU students will have fake IDs, but the average student wouldn’t go to the bowling alley in the basement of the Union and risk getting caught just to buy some 3.2 alcohol percentage beer.

Administrators at K-State allow beer sales in the K-State Student Union and they don’t discuss the alcohol sales like they lead to underage drunk drivers and massive orgies. K-State students think of the union as a place to go and hang out, get a sandwich late at night, watch games on TV and play pool while drinking beer.

If I had a choice of going someplace else where I can drink beer and bowl or going to the Union where I can’t even drink Mountain Dew, then I’d gladly pay a little extra and take a drive.

Allowing alcohol sales may not make the Union a hopping place on Saturday night, but what about Monday night when you just want to relax, bowl and drink a beer with you friends?

Marlesa Roney, vice provost for Student Success, said selling 3.2 beer at the Union would be too much of a risk. A risk of what? Selling to minors? Drunk drivers? Students being hit late at night by college professors outside of the union after an intense game of bowling? What would we be risking?

The Union is a dead place to hang out at night, and adding alcohol may not cause instant fun, but it would create a more casual atmosphere that doesn’t make students feel like they are living in the 1920s during prohibition.

The reasons for calling an end to alcohol sales at the Union in 1997 were even more senseless than the office of Student Success’ reasons for not resurrecting it. According to a story published in the Kansan last week, the Union quit selling beer after an off-campus car accident involving two KU students. The University of Kansas had nothing to do with the accident.

Some irresponsible KU student drank and then drove and got into an accident. Why don’t we just ban cars on campus? That would have solved the problem.

The office of Student Success may want us to succeed, but God forbid we handle an adult theme such as drinking beer at a bowling alley. They want us to act responsibly. Why not give us the opportunity to prove that we can? Allow beer at the bowling alley and then let’s see how many, if any, incidents occur. At least if there were drunken orgies, more students would go to the Union and they could learn about safe sex.

Dan Hoyt for the edtorial board.

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