The Alcohol License Review Committee reviewed updates from the Policy Alternatives Community Education (PACE) project's efforts to limit drink specials at Madison bars during a meeting Wednesday. The committee also gave a liquor license to the Ale Asylum, the east-side microbrewery set to open in February.
Susan Crowley, PACE project director and director of prevention services and community relations for University Health Services, informed the committee of progress and steps made by PACE to counter drink specials and encourage the city to take legal measures limiting them.
"The context for PACE's mission is that college settings are dangerous in the first six to eight weeks," Crowley said. "We've been looking at advertisements and promotions bars have been using to attract students."
Crowley said there are a variety of different promotions for drink specials that appear in newspapers at the beginning of the semester.
"We see different promotions at the beginning of the semester than we do later on," Crowley said. "We usually see promotions and drink specials advertised in newspapers to attract students. As the semester goes on, the specials continue and are visible to students as they walk by."
The PACE project, since its beginning, has been in contact with the city about an ordinance cutting or eliminating drink specials. Crowley said the recent federal lawsuit filed against 25 Madison bars has not discouraged the project from promoting the creation of a law.
"I would say that the PACE project always supported an ordinance for a level playing field among taverns," Crowley said.
According to Crowley, 39 states have regulation of happy-hour and drink specials. Limiting access to alcohol is a way to keep students safe, she added.
"Putting restraints on drink-special advertisements and drink specials themselves would hinder students' access to alcohol, which would help deal with the over-consumption problem we have on campus," Crowley said.
University of Wisconsin officials are very concerned about an increased number of students going to the detoxification center compared to last year, she added.
"Not only are we the No. 1 party school, but thus far, we've had 30 students taken to detox and hospitals by the UW Police Department," Crowley said. "We only had 13 students admitted to detox or the hospital at this point last year."
The PACE project will meet again in February to discuss campus drinking issues.
Once it opens for business, the Ale Asylum will be the first microbrewery in recent memory to brew and bottle its beer within Madison city limits, Otto Dilba, a co-founder of the brewery, said.
Dean Coffey, former brew master at the Angelic Brewing Company and co-founder of the Ale Asylum, shared his excitement for the beginning of the microbrewery with the ALRC.
"This has been a life-long dream for me," Coffey said. "Otto and I have been working on this project for several years now and we can't wait to open up."
