Alcohol use restricted at KU

In the late 1970s you could buy 3.2 beer at the Kansas Union. You also could have beer in your dorm room refrigerator.

Times have changed.

A couple of tailgaters drink beer before a Kansas University football game at Memorial Stadium. Alcohol was allowed in certain areas around the stadium last fall.

Now there is no beer sold in the union. If you get caught with beer in your dorm room, you might find yourself looking for a new place to live.

The campus alcohol rules changed in 1985 after the state of Kansas raised the legal age for drinking all alcoholic beverages from 18 to 21.

Now there is no sale or consumption of alcohol on campus unless the chancellor designates a specific site to allow alcohol for a social function.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t illegal drinking going on somewhere on campus. But alcohol-related problems KU Public Safety officers have to deal with, however, normally stem from drinking done elsewhere, director Ralph Oliver said.

“What we usually end up with is the aftermath of drinking,” Oliver said. “Fights. People falling out of a (dorm room) window. Driving under the influence.”

Under KU policy, any student or employee found to be possessing or consuming alcohol on campus is subject to disciplinary action.

Employees could be fired. Students will be subject to sanctions that include completion of an approved drug or alcohol rehabilitation program, disciplinary warning, probation, suspension or expulsion from the university.

In addition to the KU disciplinary action, someone violating the dry campus laws could face punishments set down by state law and Lawrence city ordinances.

Consuming or possessing alcohol on campus is a misdemeanor, but could result in a maximum penalty for first offenders that includes six months in jail, a $500 fine, alcohol education, and a 30-day driver’s license suspension.

A third conviction is a felony and could result in a year in state prison and a $2,500 fine as well as other penalties.

Alcohol is not sold or allowed at KU football, basketball or other sporting events. During the past football season, however, the ban was lifted for certain tailgating areas around Memorial Stadium.

KU officers still kept a close watch for anyone leaving the restricted areas with alcohol. Violators were asked to comply and either get rid of their drinks or move back into the proper area, Oliver said.

Zero tolerance was shown to minors found with alcohol.

“If they are underage, we cite them,” Oliver said. “There is no leniency with that.”

KU officers kept a record of how many “alcohol contacts” were made with violators on home football game days. The totals ranged from a high of 815 the day of the Oklahoma game and 713 the day of the Missouri game to only six during KU’s last Big 12 home game of the year against Iowa State.

“Many of those contacts were with fans from the other schools who didn’t know the rules,” Oliver said.

Attempts to educate KU students on the hazards of drinking too much have increased over the past few years, said Bill Smith, interim director of health education at Watkins Health Center. Presentations are made to dorms, fraternities, sororities and other groups.

Similar presentations also are made to freshmen at the beginning of each school year, Smith said. And new programs are in development.

“One of them is designed to teach people to recognize when someone is drinking too much and how to handle the situation,” he said.

Programs already in existence reached 1,500 students from January through March, he said.

KU students are not heavy drinkers, said Kelly Mosher, assistant coordinator of the Wellness Campaign, a program funded by a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation.

The program’s purpose is to conduct interviews and focus groups with students to determine how much students drink and inform them about it using methods such as newspaper advertising.

One ad that appeared during the past year stated “Most KU students drink moderately or not at all.”

“We have had some research that shows students think their peers are drinking more than they really are,” Mosher said. “That may cause individuals to think they need to drink more themselves.”