The beer on points proposal at last rests in the hands of the University administrators who will ultimately decide its fate-but one key sticking point remains: the placement of students' birth dates on their DukeCards.
Trinity senior Jason Barclay, Duke Student Government chief of staff, met with a handful of administrators Monday morning to present a proposal that would allow students to purchase beer on food points at the Devil's Den during dinner hours. Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson is currently deciding whether or not to approve the plan; although she was at yesterday's closed meeting, she could not be reached for comment.
The discussion at the meeting quickly turned to the issue of kegs on campus (see related story, pg. 1), but Barclay said the conversation about beer on points focused primarily on the possibility of placing birth dates on students' DukeCards.
Birth dates on cards became a prominent issue at last week's DSG meeting when the legislature passed a resolution expressing its opposition to the requirement, which Barclay said in an earlier interview had served as a bargaining chip to gain the alcohol policy review committee's approval for the beer on points proposal.
Barclay said yesterday that University officials were also troubled by the notion of birth dates on DukeCards; he said they expressed concern that the stipulation would create a "Big Brother" atmosphere.
"I made an effort to convey the apprehension that students had about putting ages on DukeCards, and [administrators] indicated that actually placing the birth dates on cards was also a concern for them," Barclay explained, adding that one suggested alternative is to program birth dates into DukeCards rather than explicitly imprinting them on the front or back. "Programming the dates only for people over 21 into the cards won't be hard. It only requires the push of a button, and [administrators] already have the technology to do it."
Whether or not this alternative will garner support from students is unclear, but several administrators remain steadfast that they will withhold their seal of approval unless birth dates are be available in some form to those distributing beer.
Jim Wulforst, director of dining services, was unable to attend yesterday's meeting but said in an interview that he believes the requirement is a necessity.
"To give us a safeguard measure," he said, "we'd like to have a regular state-issued form of identification and also a DukeCard programmed to confirm your date of birth. It would help us to the facilitate the proofing process."
Many campus officials-University-approved bartenders among them-report having a difficult time validating the identity and ages of students who want alcohol. The problem has become so severe, in fact, that administrators have begun to consider the elimination of kegs from campus events, citing as the justification their inability to find bartenders willing to assume responsibility for students' consumption.
The entire beer on points proposal-and not simply the matter of birth dates on DukeCards-has been a point of controversy in past two weeks.
DSG Executive Vice President and Trinity junior Sarah Mitchell challenged the constitutionality of the context in which DSG President and Trinity senior Lino Marrero approached the administration with the proposal; the subsequent judicial review determined that Marrero had misrepresented his beer on points proposal to the legislature as an executive order when it was not. Marrero received no formal punishment, however, and most alcohol policy committee members said the ruling has not affected their stances on the proposal.
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