For many college students, bars are not just a social tradition'their drink specials are also a cheap alternative for penny-pinching students hoping to get more alcohol for their buck.
But it is just this advantage that has left many university officials and parents across the country fretting. They say the very thing that makes bars so appealing is also what makes them so dangerous.
Happy hours, 2-for-1 specials, bottomless pitchers, alcohol prizes. These are the culprits that contribute to binge drinking, say many critics, including officials at UW-Madison. Because drink specials are typically offered at reduced prices or are available only within an allotted amount of time, critics argue that specials encourage students to drink as much as they can, as quickly as they can.
But the idea of regulating drink specials in bars has sparked considerable opposition, and not just from tavern owners. Skeptics, including unconvinced city and university officials, say banning drink specials is unfair to tavern owners and will merely push students to drink in unsupervised settings.
But this has not stopped universities from trying. Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa, passed a measure this year banning drink specials, including 2-for-1 specials, unlimited servings for a fixed price and alcohol-involved contests. Proponents of the move said it would help alleviate binge drinking. But whether it is successful is yet to be seen, said Dee Vanderhoef, a City Council member in Iowa City. She said the city is still compiling data on the effects of the new restrictions, including whether unregulated house parties have increased.
'[Regulation] makes sense to me, but whether it makes a difference, I don't know at this point,' Vanderhoef said. 'There is certainly another piece of this we have not addressed. ... How many more at-home parties are there now'?
Opponents of banning drink specials think they know the answer. Jeffrey Cox, vice president of UI's Faculty Senate, pointed to UI's alcohol ban in campus fraternities several years ago. The ban did nothing but push alcohol into rental neighborhoods, where unsupervised parties prevail, he said.
'The neighborhoods were just trashed,' Cox said. 'If you drive the students out of the bars, you just drive them into unregulated, unsupervised neighborhoods.'
Cox said while most university officials support the new measures, he does not.
'I doubt it will help,' he said. 'It will just increase the antagonism between students, the police and bar owners.'
A bar manager at 'Vito's,' in Iowa City, said taverns can find numerous loopholes around the restrictions, like making drinks cheaper.
'Binge drinking doesn't happen in the bars, it happens at home, at parties, at after-bars. ... The people making the money are the gas and liquor store owners,' he said. 'I think there is a lot of misunderstanding, and [the university] just doesn't know what to do.'
But university officials like Kim Dude at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Prevention Center said the problem with excessive drinking is how cheap and easily accessible alcohol is. She criticized bars that sell non-alcoholic drinks, like soda, at more expensive prices than their cheapest alcoholic drink.
'Drink specials are the exact opposite of what we teach in prevention. We teach to drink slowly and moderately. But drink specials encourage you to drink as much as you can in a short period of time,' she said.
Dude's efforts to push Columbia's City Council into regulating drink specials have been unsuccessful. She criticized city officials who she said empathize with bar owners more than the health of students.
'They looked at the rights of bar owners over the health and well-being of our community,' Dude said.
Whether the city of Madison will join the trend toward regulating drink specials is still uncertain. Today, a city subcommittee on comprehensive alcohol issues will hold a student input hearing, and one of the proposals being considered by the subcommittee is the creation of downtown entertainment districts. The proposal, initiated by Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14, would have the city limit drink specials and set alcohol prices for all taverns within the entertainment districts on State Street, University Avenue and Regent Street.
UW-Madison officials, including LaMarr Billups, special assistant to Chancellor John Wiley, have endorsed the idea. They say it will help diminish the environments that foster binge drinking.
Others, however, are unconvinced. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said that not only would eliminating drinks would be unfair to tavern owners, but the measure might not even be lawful.
'I have a hard time believing it would be legal,' he said. 'It's unfair restraint of trade and infringing on the bar owners' right to business.'
Students interested in voicing their opinions on a potential entertainment district, or other alcohol-related issues, are invited to attend the 5:30 meeting today at Memorial Union.
