After the ban on drink specials, students began to look at the Alcohol Licensing Review Committee as an adversary. Rarely have student papers had a chance to depict the regulatory group as a group who did things students liked.
This week, the ALRC began discussions on how to implement a new classification of liquor license. In essence, the Visual and Performing Arts license would allow a club to host a band and admit both an underage and a drinking audience without clearing the hurdle of generating 50 percent of sales from food. This plan, if implemented, would be a very good thing.
Since the death of O'cayz Corral three years ago, the city of Madison has been a city without music. Without a midsize venue or the guarantee that a show will fill, we have lost much of the indie credibility that Madison once had.
Meanwhile, the university has struggled to find alternatives to drinking to offer students. If a hip band is at the Annex, then the SERF is really no alternative. Keeping underage students out of concerts only polarizes the underage students from the drinkers, and gives students another reason to join the UW's fabled drinking culture.
Allowing the Visual and Performing Arts license solves both problems. Increasing the audience of shows gives musicians an incentive to come to Madison. The ultimate alternative to drinking at a concert is not drinking at the same concert. Instating the new class of licenses would provide students better shows and better non-drinking options.
Rarely do we get tell the ALRC that they have done a good thing, to pat the organization on the back and congratulate them on a job well done. Congratulations. The Visual and Performing Arts license is something the university and its students can get behind.
The number of low-income students attending the UW system has dropped 15 percent since 1998. To combat the loss, system officials offered a sound plan at Friday's Board of Regents meeting to help fix this problem by making college more affordable.
According to state law, when tuition increases by a certain percentage, financial aid must also increase by the same percentage, according to the Capital Times. However, percentage increase may still leave a real-dollar gap between the tuition increase and the financial aid given to students from families that earn less than $30,000 per year. The proposal will close that gap by awarding financial aid recipients the difference.
Higher education should be a universal right, and this plan helps ensure that education will be afforded to everyone, not just the wealthy.
