The issue closest to the hearts and livers of UW-Madison students, staff and administration was again heatedly deliberated Thursday when the Downtown Tavern Working Group delivered its new position on the possible ban of drink specials in Madison.
Marsh Shapiro, owner of the Nitty Gritty, 223 N. Frances St., lead proceedings on behalf of the DTWG, as the tavern owners outlined their proposals, urging both the city's Alcohol License Review Committee and UW-Madison to agree to their compromise on the issue concerning drink specials and their possible relation to undesirable public behavior.
\Without acknowledging that drink specials are indeed causing the problem, we as a group have agreed that we will voluntarily and immediately end all drink specials on Friday and Saturday nights after 8 p.m. in our establishments,"" Shapiro said.
This voluntary action, fully supported by more than 20 downtown taverns, was done with the intent of deterring further action by the City Council on the issue of drink special bans.
""We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,"" Shapiro said.
In the press release accompanying Thursday's meeting, the DTWG presented an array of statistical evidence that supports its position on the relationships between drink special pricing and the problems that UW-Madison wishes to drastically reduce, such as binge- and underage-drinking near campus. Calling on studies of underage alcohol consumption by expert Henry Wechsler, the DTWG asserted that, ""there is nothing in the (new) study that warrants the conclusion that beer prices impact the rate of drinking by of-age or under-age students.""
UW-Madison officials noted the absence of Thursday night, or ""Thirsty Thursday,"" in the tavern league's voluntary, post 8 p.m. weekend ban on drink specials. Shapiro attributed the noninclusion of Thursday nights as a lack consensus on the part of the league.
Susan Crowley, executive director of the PACE Coalition, formerly known as the Robert Wood Johnson Project, said she was ""absolutely"" disappointed that Thursdays weren't added.
""I think that the data's pretty clear that Thursday is a big drinking night also, "" Crowley said, but also added it ""will give us an opportunity to see if there's significant difference between weekends and Thursday nights.""
UW Chancellor John Wiley, one of the major proponents of the proposed ban on drinking specials, echoed Crowley's sentiments.
""Friday and Saturday alone account for 66 percent of all of the assaults in the downtown area. If you add Thursday, you can add that up to almost 80 percent,"" he said.
The tavern owners said they hope that their voluntary weekend ban on special drink pricing will be enough to allay a total ban on drink specials.
""We have taken the initiative here, we have presented the olive branch, and we hope that this is the first step toward mutual understanding and consideration from all parties involved,"" Shapiro said.
