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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1985)
Biking with brew in Ft. Lauderdale: Making friends, with alcohol serving as ‘a social lubricant’ FRANK-CAPRI who has twice won appeals before the state licensing board. Says Rada: “I just don’t believe education and alcohol mix.” At other campuses, clear-cut regulations are in place, but violations go largely un heeded. Concedes one resident assistant in a Maryland high-rise dorm: “On weekends the beer flows all over this place. And it’s a good bet that most of the people getting stoned are underage.” Many administra tors say they would prefer not to have to regulate drinking. “We have been as laissez faireas we can be on alcohol, says Dean of Students Leslie Lawson of UC, Santa Barbara. “Students like it the way it is, faculty don’t be lieve we should get back into the business of ethical or moral judg ments about student behavior and administrators are concerned be cause alcohol is a big problem.” However reluctant, adminis trators cannot ignore their legal obligations. As South Carolina’s Pruitt puts it, “Univer sity policy is just a reflection of the law. The college campus is not a sanctuary.” Now that the law is changing, colleges are concerned about their civil liability where in juries or property destruction re sults from campus-related drink ing. While several courts have ruled that schools don’t have a custodial relationship with stu dents—and therefore cannot be held liable for the actions of drunken students—the law in this area is quite unsettled. Last year a New Jersey court found hosts lia ble for certain subsequent actions by their guests, and this concept could con ceivably be extended to colleges. "Obvious ly, universities cannot be totally cavalier in this area,” says Donald Klasic, general counsel of the University of Nevada. “They have some responsibilities, particularly in the instance that something occurs on cam pus as the result of a campus-sponsored ac tivity and with funding from student fees.” Alcohol is a very profitable business on campus. Each year college students buy more than S2.6 billion worth of beer alone, Hudweiser pit stop near 1-95 in Georgia: Playing safe and brewers spend $15 million to $20 million promoting their prod ucts. Market research indicates that most people develop loyalty to a particular beer between the ages of 18 and 24, so brewers work hard to get their names in front of college students. Nearly all of the major companies employ stu dents as marketing represent atives. They offer student groups free beer and almost anything that can display a logo, from giant in flatable beer bottles to calendars. Brewers also pour out big bucks to sponsor campus events; at Mi ami, Coors spent $1,500 for, among other things, an alumni tailgate party, while Miller bank rolled midday concerts to the tune of $6,500. Recently, however, colleges have begun to back away from alcohol tie-ins. The University of Vermont no longer allows promo tional agreements with makers or distributors of alcohol. Loyola of Chicago’s school paper now refuses liquor and beer ads. These schools, and many oth ers, want to avoid even the inference that they sanction drinking. Says Irving Maltz man, a UCLA psychology professor, "Bat tling alcohol abuse is an uphill battle when you have athletics by Bud, homecoming by Miller, Mardi Gras by Coors and on and on.” For their part, brewers have, by and large, abandoned such time-honored pro motions as the wet-T shirt contest for more public-spirited endeavors. Miller Beer has underwritten alcohol-education literature. And Budwciscr spon sors spring-break pit stops along major highway routes to Florida, where travelers can, relax with cof fee and doughnuts. Alcohol-awareness courses have proliferated to the point that the majority of colleges now offer them. At Dart mouth, freshmen are taught on their very first night in Hanover about the dangers of uncontrolled drinking. For its award-winning program during last fall’s Alco hol Awareness Week; Arizona State offered an alcohol-triv ia game, a sobriety test, "mock tails” and a raft of educational literature. Some researchers question the long-term benefits of such pn grams, but many campuses re port that drinking restriction have already paid dividend Drinking-related accidents and vandalism are down at Maryland campus Police Chief Eugen , Sides points to a 13 percent drop
