Opinion

Time to step up

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Tomorrow evening, the city’s Alcohol License and Review Committee will consider banning downtown drink specials as the central part of a broader proposal to combat downtown alcohol abuse. The meeting will be a pivotal moment for student drinking issues, a moment that will likely set the tone for all future debate.

The positions of bar owners, UW administrators and politicians are clear, but two important voices are still absent from the crowd: UW students and Chancellor John Wiley.

While Wiley has previously expressed strong support for banning drink specials, he seems to understand that bars represent only a fraction of the overall problem, a reality not reflected by the ALRC’s plan. This plan does a lot to step up regulation of bars, but it says little of the far more dangerous drinking that occurs in dorms and private house parties (for example, Wiley’s favorite example of a high-risk drink — Jell-O shots — is available exclusively at house parties). The report says even less about the inevitable flight of students from supervised bars to hazardous house parties, were drink specials eliminated. When Wiley offers his opinions to the ALRC and City Council, he should reject the current proposal as being shortsighted.

Students should also make their presence felt. Drink specials do not cause alcohol abuse. Rather, high-risk drinking is the result of a university community that lacks mainstream entertainment options and that accepts exaggerated levels of drinking as the social norm. The ALRC and RWJ are right — banning drink specials will decrease alcohol consumption in the bars. But if the lack of weekend alternatives and the underlying drinking culture are not addressed, that consumption will simply shift to unsupervised, unsafe and deadly house parties.

When it comes to city politics, the world truly belongs to those who show up; even a small group of students could make a big difference at tomorrow’s ALRC meeting. We encourage student organizations (including ASM), fraternities and sororities, Chancellor Wiley, and any other students concerned about safely addressing student drinking to join us in enlightening the ALRC tomorrow evening.

The ALRC will meet at 6:30 p.m. in Room 201 of the City-County Building, 210 Martin Luther King Blvd