I remember a few years ago when I was a freshman, sophomore and even a junior at Iowa State walking long treks in the snow, running to catch the Moonlight Express – drunk bus – and standing around a keg in a big plastic tub full of ice. These are memories of my pre-21 days when I was not able to visit Ames bars. I remember all too well the dark, hot, humid and often smelly cluster-fudge formed in some old basement where the standard was drinking until one couldn’t drink anymore, having to catch the bus home or worse-yet, passing out there. These are the weekend activities of a very large number of underage ISU students. Often people get into fights or do drugs. Often people make decisions they regret or have to live with for a very long time. These are the realties of the life of underage ISU students.

I am writing today simply to express my opinion on the underage bar-drinking situation. With all due respect to recent decisions made by GSB ex-officio City Council liaison Craig Buske, someone who I personally have a lot of respect for because of his dedication and good intentions, I must humbly dissent from his recent decision. I will not waste my time with worn out arguments in favor of opening bars to all students and focus on what I see as the real situation. I believe there are really two problems that exist in making it impossible for underage students to be admitted into establishments that serve alcohol to those of age. The first problem is the fact that there is a major population of students who always intend to get drunk on weekends and will not be stopped. I don’t care how many safe-venues or nonalcoholic events can be created, the situation will not go away. These students create a large risk bar owners would rather not face.

The second problem is that even if minors are allowed into bars, there is not enough room in Campustown to accommodate them. This latter problem can be easily solved. The city of Ames along with representatives from the ISU community should encourage more bars in Campustown. In fact, there should be so many that instead of bar owners saying “we don’t need any more business,” they would be forced to compete for it. There should be enough bar space that bar owners are forced to take on the liability costs associated with having underage patrons. Let there be so much competition that someone is forced to watch out for underage students. Sure, some will manage to sneak a drink or two or many. But if they pass out, someone will be there to make sure they are safe and OK. If they get into fights, someone will be there to break them up. If someone wants to pressure his peers to use drugs, he will fear doing so because of the constant supervision of bar staff.

Rather than prohibiting minors from going to bars, let the students who will drink regardless have a place where they can socialize on weekends. It would be better they are in a safe environment than the aforementioned basement.

Let us work to solve the real problems that exist with underage drinking. Let’s discourage underage drinking where we can, but more importantly, let’s try to make it safer where we can’t. Let’s have “safer venues” work to make sure students have transportation to and from Campustown, even later than CyRide stops service. Let’s get students out of dangerous situations – let’s build more bars. If we don’t, it’s only a matter of time before someone is in a really bad situation – before someone dies. Excuse me, someone else dies.

Tom Dworzanski

Senior

Finance