Creighton University: "Bartender? I'll Have A 'Sex On The Beach,' Please"

Creighton bellying up to own bar

BY MATTHEW HANSENWORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Billy Bluejay is breaking into the bar business.

Students meet with a teacher at a student union bar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A campus official who monitors binge drinking among students says most alcohol-related problems involve off-campus bars. Creighton University will open a restaurant and bar inside its new student center this summer, a "sports cafe" that school officials are billing as a unique meeting place for alumni, students and downtown workers.The university has received approval for a liquor license from the Omaha City Council and will become the only college in Nebraska - and one of only a handful in the Midwest - to serve beer, wine and liquor daily on campus. Once the Mike and Josie Harper Center opens in August, a Creighton senior stressed after a tough exam can exit his classroom inside the student center, descend two flights of stairs, enter the sports cafe and order a gin and tonic, without going outside.S o, how do students feel about the on-campus bar? "They think it's a positive move," said Micah White, president of Creighton's Student Union and a junior who will turn 21 this summer. University officials say they will force patrons of the new watering hole to be responsible drinkers. No shots will be served. The bar will close at 10 p.m. weekdays and midnight on weekends. Drinkers must wear wrist bands. Underage students caught trying to drink there could be suspended from school.

Only a handful of colleges in the Midwest serve beer, wine and liquor daily on campus. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, left, patrons can buy beer but not liquor in the student union's two bars.

"This is going to be a grown-up place for grown-up people," said John Cernech, the Jesuit university's vice president for student services. "This will not be wild." But collegiate alcohol experts aren't completely sold on the idea of full-service, on-campus bars.

Some say college-run bars are actually safer than their off-campus counterparts, especially if the university prohibits drink specials that encourage heavy drinking and trains bartenders to cut off service to intoxicated customers.Others say the mere act of opening a campus bar - especially one that serves liquor - hampers the ongoing battle against binge drinking.

Nearly half of all American college students regularly binge drink, the kind of excessive alcohol consumption that makes drunken driving, unsafe sex and other high-risk behaviors much more likely, studies show. "Universities shouldn't be in the business of serving alcohol. I think they've got way more important things to do," said Peter Nathan,

who researches alcohol abuse at the University of Iowa's department of community and behavioral health.Cernech told the City Council that of 6,997 Creighton students, more than half are 21 or older. The university also has about 11,000 alumni in town, many of whom work downtown and could drop by for lunch.Several alumni and boosters suggested, during the planning of the Harper center, that beer, wine and liquor be made available on campus, Cernech said. The four-story, 214,000- square-foot building, made possible by a donation from former ConAgra CEO Mike Harper, is scheduled to open around Aug. 1. The Harper center will offer plenty of amenities for students, including a two-story bookstore, coffee shop and a giant exercise room.

The Rev. John Schlegel, Creighton president, and other school officials liked the idea of adding a cafe with an Applebee's-style menu and full bar, because they wanted to entice alumni and athletic boosters to campus as well, Cernech said.

Cernech envisions the sports cafe as a place where former Bluejays can mingle with students before athletic events and members of the public can rub elbows with professors. Building a campus bar reflects the reality that Creighton students already have easy access to alcohol, Cernech said.The university sells alcohol at sporting events. Creighton regularly receives special permits to serve alcohol at on- and off-campus functions, just as the University of Nebraska's four campuses and most of the state's private colleges do. Creighton students also can walk to the Blue Jay Bar, a longtime school hangout that is adjacent to the campus. Other bars are within a five-minute drive. Cernech said having an on-campus bar is "far better than (students) getting on the city streets." Michael Kelley, director of counseling and psychological services at Creighton, said he's thought long and hard about the message that offering an on-campus bar sends to students. Kelley, a leader of the university's alcohol awareness efforts, said he wasn't consulted in the planning stages of the sports cafe. He said he has come around to the idea - especially if the bar's rules encourage responsible drinking. Kelley will get a close-up view: Creighton's new counseling and psychological services office will be located next door to the restaurant and bar. "This is something that no other Nebraska school has done, so in that sense it's surprising," Kelley said. "But this can have real value if we encourage moderation. This can fit into a sensible lifestyle message that's very much a part of Creighton's mission." University officials can look to Wisconsin's largest state school and a tiny college in eastern Kansas if they want insight into the do's and don'ts of running an on-campus bar.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has served beer inside and outside its student union since the 1930s. University officials there briefly debated ending beer sales a decade ago, when national studies found that Wisconsin students ranked among the worst binge drinkers in the country.

Instead, the university started a binge drinking research and outreach project now called PACE, headed by Aaron Brower, a professor in the department of social work. Brower, university officials and bar managers designed a six-point plan to end high-risk drinking on campus. They gave bar employees more training and ended the practice of selling large paper pitchers of beer, often chugged by students. The student union's two bars have never sold liquor, which has a higher alcohol content. Binge drinking is still common at the University of Wisconsin, Brower said, but you wouldn't know it from spending a night in the student union's bars. PACE's extensive research shows the vast majority of alcohol-related problems occur at the 52 bars within walking distance of campus, Brower said. "Personally I think that if all the (Madison) bars operated the way the union does, we wouldn't have a problem," Brower said. Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts college in Atchison, Kan., also sells beer, but not liquor, in a small restaurant and bar inside its student union. There is little to no underage drinking at the bar for this reason: There are only 1,300 students on campus, and visitors can't enter the bar without a student, said Steve Johnson, spokesman for Benedictine."Everybody knows everybody, so we know if you're a freshman," Johnson said.

When told of Creighton's plans, alcohol experts and officials from schools that maintain on-campus bars agreed on one point: It won't be easy for Creighton to control drinking in the new sports cafe.

It can be done, they said, but only if the bar is run correctly. "The proof is in the pudding," said Nathan, the University of Iowa researcher. "Are they going to be able to keep kids under 21 from drinking? Are they going to be able to regulate this well enough for older students? I hope Creighton does a better job of that than most universities."

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