Frist beverage lab still not on tap

The Frist Campus Center has defied expectations in its success as a magnet for hungry students, faculty and staff. However, due to a lengthy licensing process and a lack of consensus among University community members, the Frist Beverage Lab still does not offer beer and wine, as the designers of the campus center had envisioned.

The beverage lab was recently granted an exemption from a New Jersey state regulation requiring organizations to exist for three years before being granted the limited beer and wine license that some hope the beverage lab will eventually attain.

The University still has not applied for that license and will probably not do so in the immediate future. The latest delay is a result of the fact that the idea of serving alcohol at Frist earns mixed reactions from the University community.

Originally, "there were some concerns that maybe all segments of the community wouldn't be drawn to First," said Frist director Paul Breitman. "It was intended that alcohol would be served in an intellectual type environment" in order to attract graduate students, faculty and staff, he added.

However, it seems that Frist is drawing all segments of the community and that beer and wine might not be needed to attract a wide variety of community members. "The fact is that the beverage lab has become quite popular without wine and beer," said Breitman.

Other issues raised by Breitman include the challenge of containing alcohol abuse and preventing people from taking alcohol outside of the beverage lab. "It would not operate if it became a place where people tried to abuse alcohol," he said.

The history of the short-lived pub at Chancellor Green offers perspective on the potential for alcohol abuse. Director of dining services Stu Orefice said he could not recall any serious incidents involving alcohol consumption at the pub.

Breitman also expressed concern that serving alcohol at Frist might be "anti-community."

"Frist is a community environment, but three quarters of the community couldn't consume [alcohol]," he said.

Hayden Odell '04, who said she believes alcohol should not be served at the beverage lab, agreed that "to bring alcohol into the [campus] center would make it a divider."

Nonetheless, Breitman said he believes that serving beer and wine at the beverage lab could have a positive impact on the campus. He said he believes that the creation of a sophisticated place in which people would consume beer and wine responsibly would serve as a visible counterpoint to alcohol abuse.

It would provide "our students and campus community a reasonable and responsible alternative . . . We have an opportunity to show that we are not all a bunch of alcohol abusers," said Breitman.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

However, the University's administration will have to consider the issue more fully before the licensing process continues, Breitman said.

"I want to take it slowly; I want it to be fully discussed, and I want community involvement," Breitman said. "The earliest this [serving beer and wine] could happen is the beginning of 2002."

University Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said that "it is still expected that eventually there will be an alcoholic beverage license available for the beverage lab . . . probably by the fall."

Sen. William Frist '74 (R-Tenn.), who, along with his brother's family, made the largest financial contribution for the center, was unable to comment on the issue.