If there's one issue this campus cares about, one shared obsession, one reason innumerable students vie to attend the prestigious University of Wisconsin, it's booze. In all honesty, we may not all drink, but most of us do, and we're all affected by it. Some students watch classmates lose brain cells and some students visit Ian's at 1 a.m. for Mac n' Cheese pizza or projectile vomit in a stairwell.
Eighth District alderman and UW senior Bryon Eagon is currently lobbying the Common Council to add a student seat to the Alcohol Licensing and Review Committee (ALRC), which oversees all alcohol policy within the city of Madison.
Primarily, the committee grants and revokes alcohol licenses to boozy establishments in Madison. Most recently, they approved the KK bar's slap-on-the-wrist license suspension.
Currently, the committee has seven voting members––two alders and five citizen members appointed by the mayor.
Last spring during the end of former student alder Eli Judge's term, Judge successfully added a student technical adviser position to the committee. Mark Woulf, a UW senior, currently fills that position, though he can't vote during committee.
Other city interest groups have non-voting, technical advisers on the ALRC, including the Madison Police Department and the tavern league.
Several weeks ago, a proposal was brought to council to add a third alder to the committee. However, that would mean eight voting members, with the possible consequence of numerous, undesirable tie votes.
The first solution was to appoint another voting citizen member, hired by the mayor. Eagon then proposed an amendment making the possible ninth seat a student voting member.
""This would create a lot of ownership for students to actually have a full vote and full voice on an issue they are really passionate about,"" Eagon said.
""[Students are] such frequent users of these types of establishments, they know what places are safe and could provide first-hand insight for places to go to,"" Eagon added. ""They're not going to be a rubber stamp. They want fun, safe places.""
With students like Eagon and 2nd dist. alder Bridget Maniaci on Common Council, city government is not a collection of antique codgers determined to hate on students and deny us access to liquid confidence. Students can bring a unique, underrepresented voice to the discussion of alcohol policy in a community that needs to consider reality while combating alcohol problems.
Over 42,000 adults add to Madison's population for a majority of the year, and many of us can (legally) consume adult beverages.
We are an integral part of this community. We live and play in the parts of town most affected by alcohol policy. Students care about their own safety and that of their friends' and realize how alcohol can affect their environment.
The college population can bring what Eagon calls ""new dynamics and new insight"" to the table much more effectively if we have a vote than if we just have speaking rights like any other meeting attendee.
If the amendment passes, a voting student member could be added as soon as November.
It's worth asking: would any student in their right mind be willing to sit on a committee like this?
According to Eagon, yes.
Last spring, when ASM interviewed potential applicants for the non-voting student adviser seat on the ALRC, eight students applied. If the position had added influence in the form of a vote, undoubtedly there would be increased student interest, even if it would only be a nerdy, civic-minded student minority that considers joining. Though it's possible to imagine numerous frat boys jockeying for a position with real power in determining what bars open where. Seems like considerable bragging rights for impressing the ladies.
Regardless of the student seat amendment's fate, Eagon's push has helped force Common Council members to remember students as Madisonians, even in future, unrelated decisions.
""No one else had even thought for a second, why not include the students,"" Eagon said, when discussing the reaction to his amendment.
The minutiae of a student appointment must still be hammered out. Would a student appointee need to be 21 or just 18? Would the student be appointed through ASM to ensure the selection was student directed, or would that deter students from MATC and Edgewood from applying? We certainly cannot start a student-run, pan-Madison-college commission with the sole purpose of appointing one student to a committee on city council. There must be a solution that ensures students, not the mayor, appoint our student representative. If that happens, we can have a bigger voice in the conversation about our favorite subject.
Jamie Stark is a sophomore intending to major in journalism and political science. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
