BOOZE BAN AT U GAMES
Decision only forces drinkers off-campus
The University of Minnesota Board of Regents' decision to ban alcohol from campus sporting events demonstrates a lack of leadership.
Yes, the board can pat itself on the back for standing up to evil alcohol and "going dry." But the regents avoided a real discussion about the core problem. Instituting a prohibition on alcohol at the new stadium does little to deal with the problem of binge drinking and dangerous consumption.
The policy will push more students, alumni and fans to binge drink even more prior to games. Is that the type of behavior that the university prefers? Without adopting a real policy to deal with alcohol behavior, all the Board of Regents has done is turn a blind eye to the core issue and eliminated a source of income at the same time.
ANDY KAHN, RICHFIELD
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I truly hope that President Bob Bruininks did not take the most recent Dinkytown riot into consideration when recommending that no alcohol be available at the new stadium.
Yes, binge drinking has become a huge problem on college campuses, but there is data tying those statistics to a drinking age of 21. John M. McCardell Jr., the former president at Middlebury College, has been at the forefront of a movement to encourage a change in the law based on those statistics as well as his own experience as a college administrator. Banning legal alcohol sales will in no way stop binge drinking.
I am curious why it would be so bad to be the only Big Ten school to make alcohol available to all who are of legal age. Perhaps Minnesota could choose to be a leader in encouraging people to make responsible choices in an equitable environment. It seems to me that binge drinking and alcohol availability at the stadium are two very separate issues. As a parent, I believe that the former should be the one the U concerns itself with, not the latter.
