UCLA students could soon have a new place to spend time with
friends and meet new people if a plan for a casual dining space
equipped with a bar is approved by the administration.
The Associated Students of UCLA is pushing forward with its plan
to create an on-campus pub in place of the existing Cooperage
dining facility located in Ackerman Union.
The “Pub in the Union” plan was presented Thursday
to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Janina Montero and the
Student Affairs Executive Management Group, which will be
evaluating ASUCLA’s recommendations. The association will
need to receive feedback from the group before proceeding with its
plan.
Members of the association dismissed concerns that establishing
a pub on campus might contribute to alcohol abuse, citing evidence
from research conducted on other UC campuses that serve alcoholic
drinks.
Pam Viele, director of health education at the Arthur Ashe
Student Health and Wellness Center, said a research project
conducted by the center’s drug-free school committee found no
evidence of a direct relation between the availability of alcohol
on campus and alcohol-related problems.
“We talked to sister schools throughout the UC system
““ the majority of which have settings that serve alcohol on
campus ““ about what kind of effects there might be of having
alcohol service on campus “¦ There was no evidence of any
untoward effects on students,” she said.
Viele said alcohol-related problems are more often caused by
vendors in the surrounding community attempting to sell the most
alcoholic beverages they can without regard for their
customers’ health. A campus pub would encourage safe
consumption in a regulated setting, she said.
Bob Williams, director of ASUCLA food operations, said the idea
of the proposal is to create an energetic dining place where people
can meet and socialize. The focus is not on selling alcoholic
drinks, he said.
Because all students can enter the pub area, ASUCLA will take
extra precautions to sell alcoholic drinks only to those over 21
years old.
A number of methods to prevent underage drinking have been
suggested, including training staff to detect false identification
cards, and selling alcoholic drinks in glasses that are of
different colors than those containing non-alcoholic drinks.
In addition, only beer and wine ““ no hard liquor ““
would be available at the bar.
Other measures designed to reduce alcohol-related harm include
increasing the price of drinks along with their alcohol content and
imposing a dual-ID policy. ASUCLA will also establish a firm
contract with the third-party vendor who will be serving alcoholic
drinks to make sure it takes every precaution not to serve minors,
said Jerry Mann, student union director.
Mann said construction for the pub at the Cooperage would most
likely not occur until sometime in 2005 because the plan has yet to
be approved, and because the pub’s construction schedule must
coincide with the school’s breaks.
Many student representatives on the ASUCLA Board of Directors
said creating a pub would bring life to the student union after
school hours.
“We hope that this will be a place where the different
parts of the campus population ““ the undergraduate and
graduate students, the staff and faculty ““ can mingle,”
said Dria Fearn, chairwoman of the services and enterprises
committee.
Some students said they would like to have a place on campus
where they could sit down and spend time with their friends.
“UCLA is definitely missing a social gathering
place,” said Ilene Flores, a fifth-year international
development studies student.
However, Flores said establishing a pub on campus could make it
harder to concentrate on classes.
“I was just thinking about how there should be a place on
campus that sells beer … but at the same time I can imagine how
that would be kind of distracting from schoolwork,” she
said.
Brian Lau, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, said he
would not go to the pub to buy drinks.
“I would rather just go there to hang out with my friends
and maybe watch football games on the screen,” he said.