The Iowa City City Council has made some University of Iowa students unhappy.

Council members voted Tuesday night to approve an ordinance banning drink specials and happy hours in the city’s bars, effective July 1.

The ordinance, passed by a 7-0 vote, will also place more responsibility on establishments serving alcohol.

“Hopefully this will make bars be more responsible,” Iowa City Mayor Ernie Lehman said. “We want to place an obligation on the bars to follow the law.”

Lehman said the biggest concern was the overindulgence of alcohol.

“We never would have looked at this ordinance if people would just drink more responsibly,” he said.

Lehman said a good example of a special encouraging this behavior is the “all-you-can-drink” special where customers pay a fixed price for beer all night.

Some of the popular specials banned are two-for-one drink prices and 21 pitchers for $21.

Lehman said bar owners in Iowa City are not objecting to the policy because they were informed a year ago of the possible changes.

“They asked us to change it so that they were all on a level playing field,” he said. “They couldn’t afford to cut drink specials if the others were running them.”

Lehman said the city has been looking at dealing with the problem of overindulgence and underage drinking for many years and he has received about 300 emails and letters from parents of students concerned about drinking on college campuses. The University of Iowa and the “Stepping Up Project,” a university program, also were involved with promoting the ordinance.

The city hopes this ordinance will make it harder for minors to get alcohol, Lehman said, preventing instances such as the time the police department cited 99 minors for drinking in one night.

“This problem is not unique for college campuses, but the severity of it in Iowa City is [unique],” Lehman said.

Iowa City has a larger problem with overindulgence than other college towns, Lehman said. Part of the problem is the easy access to the downtown bars from the U of I campus.

“There is no other place as convenient as downtown Iowa City to get a drink,” he said.

The city council also looked into an ordinance banning minors on bar premises. However, Lehman said banning minors from bars was a step the city did not prefer to take because of the large number of minors who go to bars to dance or listen to bands. He said bars serve as one of the only venues for entertainment in the community.

During the meeting, students protested any bans on minors in bars or intoxication laws, Lehman said.

“Both of those laws will stay the same,” he said. “The only penalties are affecting the bar owners.”

Iowa City officials have talked about this sort of ordinance with other cities, including Ames. Chuck Cychosz, manager of the ISU Department of Public Safety Special Services, said the two communities are very different.

“We haven’t had the local outcry as much as Iowa City has,” he said, but the department is concerned about binge drinking at Iowa State.

In the past month, Judy Parks, assistant city attorney, said Iowa City officials called Ames asking for copies of their city ordinance concerning drinking establishments. The city sent them a copy of the minors-on-premises ordinance.

“We have taken a different approach,” she said. “Not having 19 bars here has been very effective for us. I don’t know why they wouldn’t consider it.”

Parks said the city of Ames has not considered an ordinance banning drink specials and does not plan to in the near future.

“It would be merely speculation to say the ordinance was coming to Ames,” she said.