Chatham gets LCB permission to serve beer, wine inside cafe
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Chatham University has received approval to get a liquor license to serve beer and wine at Cafe Rachel on the university campus beginning Sept. 28.
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Like peers at other schools, students at Chatham University have long counted on the usual assortment of campus pursuits from a fitness center and student clubs to art openings and concerts.
Now, university leaders are about to add a not-so-common campus amenity for their graduate and undergraduate students who are of legal drinking age: A pub.
The State Liquor Control Board has granted Chatham permission to begin serving beer and wine this fall inside Cafe Rachel, a coffee shop in Woodland Hall on campus.
University leaders say they believe it will be the only such on-campus venue in the city specifically for students. They say the decision, while a difficult one in some respects, made sense even as colleges nationwide continue to grapple with alcohol consumption issues including binge drinking.
More than half of Chatham's 2,300 students are of legal drinking age, university officials said. Some of those students have expressed interest in finding ways to enliven campus life.
Chatham President Esther Barazzone voiced an opinion supported in some quarters of higher education -- and disputed in others -- that it's better to encourage responsible drinking in a supervised campus setting than to push students away from campus on foot and in their cars, or risk that students will drink unsupervised behind closed doors in a dorm room.
"As you can appreciate, we would not have done this without the full support of our board of trustees," Ms. Barazzone said.
"Our belief is binge drinking happens when alcohol consumption is treated as something that occurs when you go out to a party and get blind drunk," she said.
Walt Fowler, Chatham's vice president for finance and administration, said the establishment set to open Sept. 28 will have a three-drink limit per customer. Bottled beer and wine by the glass will be served along with food.
Officials say staff will be trained to make sure students do not over-imbibe and that campus police will be close by if needed.
Ms. Barazzone said it was important to her that those who are of legal age to drink among Chatham's undergraduate women's college not have to rely on off-campus fraternity parties or other unsupervised settings. The school does not have sororities.
Giving students the option of stopping off with a friend for a glass of wine or a bottle of beer following a campus movie or an art show in the gallery that is adjacent to the cafe is a logical way to encourage responsible adult behavior, Ms. Barazzone said.
First Published September 17, 2011 12:00 am
