COMBO survey: Consider campus pub

“I think [a pub] would be a fantastic addition to the Princeton campus,” former USG president Rob Biederman ’08 said. “It could create a social space that is both fun and enjoyable and encourage more responsible drinking.”

Biederman presented the results of the survey to the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) last month. The COMBO recommendations stem from a survey on the effect of undergraduates’ socioeconomic backgrounds on student life, which was administered last May and in which 30 percent of undergraduates participated.

ACC co-chair Agatha Offorjebe ’09 noted that the ACC wants the University to create a venue that would serve as a model of a model of responsible drinking, and that a permanent on-campus pub “is definitely one of the main recommendations that came out of the [coalition’s workshops].” She added that the pub is “definitely strongly recommended through students and faculty and staff.”

“This time around, there’ll be a lot of student input into what the campus pub will look like,” Offorjebe said.

Biederman noted that the “enthusiastic support” of students would help the implementation of the pub move along.

In 2006, the University responded to student demand for such a venue and ran a “pub night” event for one evening in Chancellor Green to explore the issues of serving alcohol on campus.

Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson, who was heavily involved in planning the 2006 event, noted in an e-mail last week that the event, with its jazz trio and “tasty snacks,” attracted “guests from every part of the Princeton academic community.”

“The ‘experiment’ we ran suggests that there would be significant participation” in a campus pub, President Tilghman said in an e-mail last week. “It is an opportunity to bring together the entire drinking-age community — students, faculty, and staff — in a casual setting.”

Despite its popularity, the 2006 pub night did not lead to the creation of a permanent campus pub due to licensing issues and Borough opposition, indicating that the proposal for a permanent on-campus pub may be difficult to implement.

A licensing dilemma

The aftermath of the 2006 “pub night” has indicated that licensing will be a central issue in the creation of a permanent alcohol-serving establishment on campus.

There are three types of liquor licenses that allow an establishment to serve alcohol. These include the retail license typically used by restaurants and bars, a club license used by organizations like the Prospect Association to serve alcohol at Prospect House and by an association of graduate students to run the Debasement Bar in the Graduate College, and a one-day permit, which the University used for its 2006 event in Chancellor Green, University general counsel Peter McDonough explained in an interview last week.

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“The process is quite complicated and requires a good bit of detailed information” to obtain a permit, he said. He added that the University would need to seek either a retail or club license should it decide to start a pub.

The 2006 event was organized using a one-time permit to serve alcohol, McDonough explained, adding that the University had applied for and received four such permits; the remaining three were to be used for similar events that year.

The municipal attorney for the Borough, however, was under the impression that the “University would be opening a pub called the Chancellor Green Cafe,” McDonough said.

The three pub nights that were to follow were cancelled after the Borough petitioned the state of New Jersey’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) division and asked it to revoke the University’s three remaining one-time alcohol permits. The Borough believed that the University was using the permits to run precursor events to a permanent pub and not for distinct events that served alcohol, McDonough said.

McDonough appealed to the ABC, explaining that the events were in fact separate, and though they were meant to explore “the appropriateness of a campus venue for a pub sometime in the future,” the University had “no intentions at that time or current plans to actually open a pub.”

In an attempt to secure approval for a second event at Chancellor Green, the University changed the event’s name from “University Pub Night” to “Cafe After Dark,” Dickerson told The Daily Princetonian in 2006.

“[At] the Borough’s request, we removed ‘Pub’ from the title,” Dickerson explained in 2006, adding that Cafe After Dark would end earlier than the first pub night and monitor its patrons more strictly.

But the University’s efforts were fruitless, and the revoked permits were not reinstated, McDonough said.

The University had previously operated a pub in Chancellor Green until 1984. The license for that pub was issued when the drinking age was still 18.

Future options

Dickerson noted that a permanent on-campus pub was only one option that the ACC suggested during its workshops in February.

“Looking forward, our goal is to have the Alcohol Coalition complete its work and then consider how the University might respond in general to suggestions from the students related to social options for alcohol,” Dickerson said.

Offorjebe said the Coalition’s workshops also suggested that the University implement a more Princeton-specific alcohol education program that would continue beyond the alcohol.edu course students take before coming to campus. She added that the feedback received from the administration about the Coalition’s recommendations have been enthusiastic. The ACC’s full report will be released on May 9.