On Monday, the DeKalb City Council will vote on an ordinance to amend the municipal code to increase the minimum prices of beer and liquor sold in the city of DeKalb. Currently, the minimum price of beer is $.04 per ounce and the minimum price of hard alcohol is $.50 per ounce. The new ordinance would double those prices to $.08 and $1.00 respectively.

City council will pursue this measure to eliminate the weekly fifty-cent draft night, which takes place at many bars on Tuesday nights. It has been though by members of the council that students will drink less if beer is more expensive. On the student side, it has been made abundantly clear through numerous letters to the editor, opinion polls and student complaints that the move will simply result in students dishing out more cash for the same amount of beer. This is another example of the city council over-stepping its bounds and attempting to regulate what students can and cannot do.

Obviously the aldermen don’t recognize the fact that students are already financially strained due to rising tuition costs, the ever-increasing prices of text books and our limited schedules to work and make money due to classes. My hope is that the city council will not pass this ordinance at Monday’s meeting, but rather will take a break from infringing on the rights and freedoms of the citizens of DeKalb just this once. Other towns comparable to DeKalb, such as Urbana, Champaign and Macomb, do not have nearly the regulations that DeKalb does concerning the consumption of alcoholic beverages. In Urbana and Champaign a person can enter the bars at the age of 19. Those university cities recognize it is better to have students in a controlled environment like a bar, where serving can be controlled and students are asked for identification before being served, as opposed to a party, where there is zero regulation on who drinks how much alcohol. Do we want to encourage this uncontrolled party-drinking atmosphere?

In an attempt to allow students to voice their concerns about what the city council is doing, the Student Association will be providing a bus to give students a ride to city hall on Monday night. Pick up starts at 6:00 p.m. at the Holmes Student Center and will stop at each residence hall before heading to city hall. For students interested in attending the meeting or for more information, please call me at 753-0308 or e-mail me at [email protected]. The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 S. Fourth Street. Students are encouraged to attend this meeting, express their concerns and exercise their rights as citizens.