Beer sales contract not renewed

Fans of the Mustangs will no longer be able to get a Budweiser at home games come the 2009 baseball season.

The removal of one of the few exceptions to Cal Poly’s “Dry Campus” policy comes as the result of a 2005 CSU executive order banning alcohol service at athletic events. Until now, Cal Poly’s beer sales contract had been grandfathered in, but with the multi-year term expired there can be no renewal.

The move may appear to eliminate policy inconsistency, since student drinking has been a community health issue for some time, but some aren’t sure that it has much bearing on the larger problems facing the dry campus.

“There has been not one problem that I’m aware of at the baseball games, not one,” University Police Chief Bill Watton said. “It’s a more controlled environment. People have to show ID and there are officers on duty.”

Watton said the real problem has been drinking at off-campus parties and the public intoxication that results.

Other campus officials who deal with the fallout of student drinking tend to agree.

Stephan Lamb is the advisor to the fraternity council on campus.

“Once you leave campus, university policies do not govern. Just because we’re a dry campus doesn’t mean there’s no alcohol available,” he said.

“It’s unrealistic to think that college students aren’t going to party, they are. ‘Abstinence only’ style education just doesn’t work here,” Lamb added.

For those living on campus, strict enforcement by campus police and by staff in the residence halls make violations a risky business, driving students to less controlled venues.

Indeed, self reported data from surveys of 1,000 randomly selected Cal Poly students taken every fall for the last five years has shown an unusually high usage rate compared to other CSU campuses.

“We may be among the highest (in terms of use), certainly above average in the CSU system,” said Dr. Martin Bragg, Director of Health and Counseling Services.

According to the statistics there appear to be several reasons for the disparity.

“Number one, there are a lot more men than women on campus,” Bragg said. “It’s almost always the other way around. Men statistically drink more than women do. Also as a residential campus (unusual in the CSU system) there’s a large population of freshmen away from home for the first time.”

This under-21 crowd is perhaps surprisingly the heaviest drinking group around.

“For many, this is their first access to alcohol, and they lack the experience to use it wisely. In some cases though, they have a continuing pattern of use from high school and they drink as a stress reduction tool,” said Rojean Dominguez, a Cal Poly health educator.

“A lot of outside things affect what we see here,” Watton said. “Variance in high school classes for example. Sometimes the local high school will have a problem with a specific class and that causes a spike in statistics when they pass through here.”

However, by the time that a rumble-rousing freshman becomes a more seasoned junior, incidence rates are lowered and compliance with student conduct policies are less challenging.

“In terms of proceedings related to intoxication, fall and spring are my busiest times. New people lime to test the limits,” said Adrienne Miller, Coordinator of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. “How we handle it depends on the severity of the incidence, the number of strikes against them already. Educational sanctions get them to examine themselves and why they behave the way they have.”

While alcohol has a persistent presence in the college community, officials are optimistic that educational programs are effective in producing results.

“In the July, June period in 2007 there were over 25 reports that led to hearings, this year during that period there have been none. I’d like to think that is due to our efforts. We’ve been doing values-based educational intervention, raising awareness of problem areas such as hazing, homophobia and drugs,” said Lamb.

“It really is a safe campus compared to others in the system,” Watton added.

“As drinking goes, we don’t have a big problem as compared to some others. We still do have some issues that we need to deal with but, we’ve been spending a lot of energy with the health department just trying to get the message out that you can suffer injuries or death from alcohol.”