Underage students wanting to gain access to bars will still have to wait until they’re 21.

Craig Buske, Government of the Student Body ex-officio City Council liaison and senior in political science, has decided not to recommend admitting 19- and 20-year-olds into bars.

Buske’s research began in May 2006 after the former GSB ex-officio City Council liaison had encouraged him to look into the suggestions from the Safe Venues Commission report. The report cited a Harvard study that stated the riskiest drinking behavior occurred at off-campus parties. In order to reduce off-campus parties, one of the group’s suggestions was to open up the bars to 19- and 20-year-olds as long as they were still not able to obtain alcohol.

Buske said he talked to bar owners, City Council members and police officers. He said he also had a meeting with ISU President Gregory Geoffroy and vice president of student affairs Thomas Hill, where they shared their suggestions and concerns on the topic.

He also looked at past experiments Ames has had, as well as looking at other college towns that admit minors into bars, such as Iowa City. Buske said after reviewing all the information, he was not convinced this would solve the problem of high-risk drinking behavior.

Through observation, feedback from students and comparison with other universities, Buske was able to better make his decision.

“The general consensus was that while a lot of students didn’t feel like it would be necessarily a bad thing for 19- and 20-year-olds to get into bars, they all kind of assumed that if the 19- and 20-year-olds were able to get into bars, they would be able to get drinks,” he said.

He said that allowing more people in bars could cause overcrowding and may lead more bars to open in Campustown.

Buske did not talk to any under-21-year-old students for their input.

“It wasn’t because I was deliberately excluding them, it’s just that most of my friends are over the age of 21,” he said.

Buske said a number of the bar owners in town were reluctant to allow this because of increased liability and the challenge of keeping alcohol away from minors.

Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger said if 19-year-olds were to gain access to alcohol in bars, bars could have other problems in addition to liability.

“Clearly it jeopardizes their license,” he said.

Tom Northrop, co-owner of Welch Avenue Station, said when Ames did try admitting 19-year-olds into bars, his establishment did not take part in the experiment.

In addition to some bars losing their licenses, the possible negative repercussions for under-21-year-olds obtaining alcohol in bars are increased insurance rates and possible liability for underage individuals leaving the bars, Northrop said. Insurance can triple for certain infractions.

Although the Harvard study mentioned in the Safe Venues Commission report said that most high-risk drinking occurs at off-campus parties, Buske said based on personal observations in Ames, this is not the case.

Jaeger pointed to research stating that off-campus parties would decrease if 19-year-olds were admitted to bars. However, it would only solve the problem to a certain point because state law requires bars to close at 2 a.m.

“I think it would be effective in reducing the number of off-campus parties until 2 a.m., and then we would have the same issues we have now,” he said.

What it came down to for Buske is that it is illegal to drink if someone is under 21.

“I’m not comfortable recommending breaking the law to anyone, and I feel like allowing 19- to 20-year-olds to get into bars is essentially condoning breaking the law,” he said.

Northrop said if 19-year-olds were to be allowed into bars, he would consider it because it may be different than the first time.

“I would have discussions with our management and our customers and form an opinion at that time,” he said.

Jaeger said he actually is not opposed to letting 19-year-olds into bars, but from what he has seen, admitting 19-year-olds leads to underage drinking.

“I’m not opposed to 19-year-olds in bars; I’m opposed to 19-year-olds getting access to alcohol,” he said.

Dan Rice, academic adviser to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Ames City Council member, said he has a problem with the 21-year-old drinking law in general.

As for admitting 19-year-olds into bars, he said it should be left up to the businesses and added that just because one is in a bar does not mean that person is going to drink.

“I would be in favor of leaving it up to individual bar owners,” he said.