Mirror - Vol. 04, No. 22 - March 12, 1981

              Committee To Review BYOB/Cash Bar Question
by Bryan LeClerc
The Community Life Committee
is in the process of reviewing mo-tions
made at last Tuesday's Uni-versity
Council meeting along with
the BYOB guidelines of the
school. This stems from the ex-perimental
cash bar at Snowball
and a survey taken by Nancy Rupp
of the legislature.
Snowball, run by AED, hosted a
cash bar where one dollar bought
a can of Michelob beer, a four
ounce glass of wine or a mixed
drink. By the end of the evening
over 1800 drinks were sold to the
700 students in attendance. Ac-cording
to Mr. Fitzpatrick, director
of the Campus Center, "My sole
purpose with the cash bar was to
prove that it could work."
The bar did work in the sense
that no major impediments were
encountered, but it did not seem
to curb the drinking problem
which some students experience.
Part of the idea behind the cash
bar was to promote responsible
drinking, not to give the students
more regulations on drinking.
There are currently "no guidelines
whatsoever" except a prohibition
of kegs at BYOB affairs, according
to Fitzpatrick. This has created
concern for the long-term effects
of drinking. Nevertheless, stu-dents
don't want to see the
answer in cash bars.
A survey by FUSA of 539 stu-dents,
292 of which attended
Snowball, showed a large number
of people, 82%, opposed to cash
bars replacing BYOB. Of those at-tending
both Snowball and other
formals at Fairfield, 92% did not
prefer cash bars to BYOB. Some
common complaints over the cash
bar dealt with the price and the
hassle of having to get up and go
for a drink.
The Irish Society has decided to
run its Luck of the Roommate
dance with a cash bar despite the
above findings. In any event, some
changes are most likely to come in
the drinking policies of the univer-sity.
Concern from some seg-ments
of the school is increasing
regarding the use of alcohol here
at Fairfield.
Mike Bentivegna, FUSA Presi-dent-
elect, summarized it best
when he said, "Hopefully, with in-put
f rorn concerned people, some
guidelines for BYOB can be set up
without eliminating it, because,
from the statistics presented,
students are obviously in favor of
BYOB over cash bar."
The accompanying bar graph re-presents
the response to FUSA's
question: How would you feel if
Cash Bar replaced BYOB? The
numbers correspond to the follow-ing
answers: 1. Greatly in
favor—2. 78%, 2. In favor—5.93%,
3. Neutral —9.09%, 4. Op-posed—
23.19%, 5. Greatly op-posed—
58.99%.
■ ■"■ £ ■ » Volume 4, No. 22, March 12, 1981 ^
FAIRFIELD ^W FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY, FAIRFIELD, CONN. 06430 MIRROR \^^^^^ Incorporated 1977
Wine Permit Request Heard At Statehouse
by Kathleen E. O'Gorman
A public hearing on March 3
took place in the state's capitol for
"an act concerning the sale of
wine under a university permit."
Testifying on behalf of Fairfield
University were Andy McGowan,
FUSA President, Brian Bellows,
FUSA Attorney General, M. Lisa
LaGuardia, Director of University
Activities, and Representative
Christine Niedermeier.
The bill, number 1226, was in-troduced
in January by Rep.
Niedermeier at the request of
Dean William Schimpf, Vice Presi-dent
of Student Services. Also
supporting the bill were a student
representative from Quinnipiac
College, and the pub manager at
Central Connecticut State College
who argued that the issue should
be approached "in terms of
moderation, responsibility, and
not prohibition."
In her testimony, Rep. Nieder-meier
stated that Fairfield Univer-sity
was requesting a "Service Bar
Permit" which includes beer and
wine. She stated that Fairfield has
had beer since 1972 under a Uni-versity
Permit and is asking for a
change of permit. Rep. Nieder-meier
offered three reasons in
favor of this bill: 1) it "represents
an inducement for students to
stay on campus" 2) it fosters bet-ter
transition for being an adult,
and 3) a member of the profes-sional
staff runs the pub (the Stag-her).
She ended her testimony
lightly by adding "wine has a po-tent
iron content and therefore
has nutritional values"
McGowan cited wine as a "pop-ular
beverage" and "not a hard li-quor."
The FUSA President stated
that it is detrimental to social
events when only serving beer,
and the addition of wine would
benefit such events. He continued
that it is the student's individual
responsibility in choosing
whether or not to drink.
Brian Bellows "considers the
consumption of alcoholic bever-ages
an individual right" and as
Attorney General it is his respon-sibility
to protect students' rights.
With his testimony, Bellows sub-mitted
to the committee a petition
with over 1,000 signatures suppor-ting
the bill.
Miss LaGuardia informed the
committee that the permitee of
the Stag-her Inn is a member of
the university's professional staff
who directs the student staff with
training on the responsible use of
alcohol. Miss Laguardia noted the
reputation of Fairfield University
and emphasized our Jesuit institu-tion
is populated with responsible
students. She stated the pub is a
place for "social interaction" and
not a drinking place. Miss LaGuar-dia
informed the committee that
wine is used at other functions,
such as Wine Tasting Seminars
and Wine and Cheese parties.
Speaking in opposition to Bill
1226 were representatives from
the Cafe Association and from the
Connecticut Hotel-Motel Associa-tion,
respectively. The first
speaker testified on behalf of
businessmen who sell liquor and
foresee detrimental financial
losses if universities are permitted
to sell wine in addition to beer,
providing the business is within
the vicinity of the school. At this
point a member of the committee,
Rep. Bob Sorensen, stated that he
does not feel the addition of wine
would make or break the
businessman.
The speaker for the Connecticut
Hotel-Motel Association felt it is
not a university's function to
police this type of business. He
stated that he was not in opposi-tion
to Fairfield University receiv-ing
a permit to sell beer in 1972,
but has been attending public
hearings since then to oppose uni-versities
from adding the sale of
wine to their permits. He fears the
trend is towards schools obtaining
full liquor licenses, which would
hurt businessmen financially.
In response to the second
speaker, Rep. Sorensen com-mented:
it "amuses me to see the
alarm" felt by established busi-nesses.
He continued that there
are only nine colleges with liquor
licenses in the state of Connec-ticut.
Directing his statements to
the businessman representing the
Connecticut Hotel-Motel Associa-tion,
Sorensen said: "The majority
of your business is either beer or
hard liquor." He questioned: "Do
you think that It's going to have
that much of a major impact on
your people?" To which the
businessman replied, "No."
Commenting on the hearing,
Andy McGowan said that Rep.
Niedermeier felt the "committee
was very impressed with us,"
referring to those representing
Fairfield University. The commit-tee
was expected to have voted on
the bill March 9th. If they voted in
favor of it, the bill then goes to the
House of Representatives. If pas-sed,
it then goes to the Senate
which, in turn, if they pass the bill,
sends it to the governor to be sign-ed.
If the governor does not veto it,
the bill then becomes law.
McGowan expects that by the end
of March we will know whether or
not the Stag-her is permitted to
sell wine.
Fr. Kelley Meets John Paul II
Musician Livingston Taylor, brother of recording artist James Taylor, of-fered
his own brand of rock and roll Saturday night in the Oak Room. See
story on page 8. [Photo by Patty Lanza]
by Ken Vaughn
When Pope John Paul II made a
brief stop in Alaska February 26,
one of the people waiting to greet
him was Fairfield University Presi-dent
Aloysius J. Kelley, S.J. Kelley
was one of 47 people selected by
President Ronald Reagan to be a
part of the official welcoming
committee.
The university president said he
received a call several weeks ago
from Washington asking him if he
would be free to make the trip to
Anchorage. Kelley said he could
go, and on February 20 another
call from Washington confirmed
his place in the 47-member en-tourage.
The official welcoming
committee was headed by Secre-tary
of Labor Raymond Donovan.
Donovan's son, Kenneth, was a
1980 graduate of Fairfield.
Kelley said that the group left
Andrews Air Force Base February
25 at 4 p.m. and arrived in An-chorage
at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time
(11:30 p.m. Eastern time). A recep-tion
was given by former Governor
Hickle that night.
The Pontiff arrived the next day
and was greeted by the commit-tee.
He went to a cathedral in An-chorage
to meet with a number of
clergy and then visited with about
150 handicapped people for an
hour or so. The Pope then cele-brated
mass before about 40,000
onlookers with the assistance of
Catholic bishops. After six hours,
John Paul boarded his airplane
and left for the Vatican. That even-ing,
the area Chamber of Com-merce
and American Federation of
Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO) spon-sored
a dinner party for the
47-member delegation. The com-mittee
left Anchorage at 7 a.m. Fri-day
morning and arrived at 6:30
p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m.
Pacific time).
Kelley said that the Pope visited
Anchorage while his airplane was
refueling; instead of just waiting
around at the airport, he went
around to meet people. "He had a
tremendous impact on the people.
His taking time to visit shows the
character of the man," com-mented
Kelley. He added that the
Pope took his time in visiting with
the people, evidenced by his leav-ing
one hour late. "He's not the
fast hand-shaking type you asso-ciate
with a political campaign,"
said Kelley.
"People in Alaska are extremely
friendly. Everything was handled
in a polite and friendly manner,"
concluded Kelley.