After returning to campus on Monday night, I was struck that each of the first five people I saw immediately raised Mayor Tisdahl’s decision to revoke the liquor license of the famed Keg of Evanston.
My first impression was the one I always have when people bring up The Keg in casual conversation: They must have nothing else to talk about. But upon further contemplation, there was clearly something more profound to the matter.
It must be significant when an event captures the attention of our entire student body because NU is an inherently splintered campus. By the diverse nature of our University, relatively few ties bond all students at the same time.
NU is divided between North Campus and South Campus; Greeks and non-Greeks; engineers and thespians; musicians and aspiring financiers; Big Ten athletes and Big Ten nerds. All are hard-working; all meticulously go about their daily business in pursuit of success.
Often that pursuit means different people’s paths don’t cross. Some lament this fact, proposing ambitious changes to the school’s culture.
However, this pluralism is a product of the diversity and excellence of NU, in which we should all take pride.
However, there are still concrete things that bring us together. Dillo Day, football games and Dance Marathon are among them. Unavoidably, The Keg was another.
None of these events turned into campus institutions overnight. Surely none of them became universal threads among students because ASG created a “forum” to discuss what everyone should do on Monday nights.
To the contrary, these NU originals are products of spontaneous and bottom-up forces that join students together regardless of many differences. For all the talk about spontaneously creating “oNe Northwestern,” The Keg has brought more people together than the administration or ASG ever could.
The Keg was not without flaws – God knows it had many. But if anything, its fame was a consequence of students’ healthy inclination to socialize in spite of their many divergent ventures.
Naturally, the City of Evanston revoked The Keg’s liquor license to curb underage drinking – a cause the University regularly champions. The former tries to limit drinking off-campus at the demands of permanent residents, while the latter tries to limit it on-campus to bolster its own public image.
Both wage this battle for self-interest, and both run into the resilient tendency of students to socialize. But the failure of Evanston and the University to acknowledge that students will drink regardless yields myriad unintended consequences.
Consider that the tendency of students would be to have a beer among friends on campus, if not for the University’s crackdown in recent years.
As of 2008, not even a student above the age of 21 could have a drink in a fraternity. Inevitably this crackdown on campus – highlighted by the 2005 expose on NU fraternities in New York Times Magazine and the subsequent expulsion of several fraternities from campus – led to a surge in off-campus parties in recent years.
Because of the University’s efforts, students now convene off campus in smaller, more isolated groups. But this reaction has met the wrath of city officials, who resurrected the “brothel law” from generations past and made students fear eviction.
Students caught between a dogmatic University and an overbearing city shift focus to college bars. But now that The Keg is no longer an option, students will look for other venues to drink.
Rather than reduce drinking among students, revoking The Keg’s liquor license will shift drinking back to dorms, fraternities and unfamiliar off-campus locations. Under the circumstances, many younger students will forgo large groups for small ones, beer for liquor and casual drinking for the binge variety.
Far from solving problems associated with underage drinking, it is likely then that the actions of Evanston and the University will simply exacerbate them.
Mitigating the risks that college students face requires a rational approach acknowledging certain behavioral norms.
In the same way that large gatherings at The Keg or on Dillo Day promote unity among a pluralistic campus, these venues provide a safer social alternative for students.
It may be momentarily satisfying for administrators when they persecute fraternities or for city officials when they close down college bars because it creates the facade of resolution, but the University and Evanston alike must prepare to take responsibility when the costs of their decisions come to fruition.
Ryan Fazio is a Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected]
All opinions expressed in this column are solely the opinions of the columnist and do not reflect the views of The Daily Northwestern. If you would like to respond to the column, you may comment below, email the columnist or submit a 300-word letter to the editor to [email protected].
