DeKALB | The Student Association took part in a little bar hopping Monday night.

After passing a resolution Sunday to oppose an ordinance to raise the minimum price of alcohol in DeKalb, the SA loaded a bus of concerned students to attend the city council meeting — and stopped at some bars along the way.

The bus trip

Starting at the Holmes Student Center, Robert Batey, the SA speaker, got out at each residence hall to try to pick up students, but most of the stops were empty.

As the bus went to Grant and Stevenson, students stood bewildered when they saw a bus and were told it was not a Campus Circle Left bus.

After Stevenson, the bus made some unscheduled stops. In an attempt to gather more students, it made rounds to three local bars.

SA president Adam Novotney and other students went to each bar trying to coax people to attend the meeting.

At Molly’s Eatery and Drinkery, 1022 W. Lincoln Highway, Novotney began asking people to join him on the bus and then told them some reasons to oppose the “Happy Hour Prohibited” ordinance.

“We don’t like paying more for beer,” Novotney said to a couple of patrons in Molly’s.

One of them agreed. “We don’t like that either,” said Molly’s patron Adam Willig. “I’m all for cheap drinks; I love it out here.”

At Otto’s, 118 E. Lincoln Highway, Novotney even offered to pay for a group’s drinks if they got on the bus.

Confronting the council

After the bus arrived at the DeKalb municipal building, more students came on their own to oppose the ordinance. About 25 attended the meeting.

The preliminary hearing before the council went longer than planned while students waiting outside were scolded by city attorney Norma Guess for being too loud.

Before the council voted, student representatives were asked to speak.

Batey went over the points in the SA’s resolution against the legislation. He also condemned the ordinance and said he would like student representation on the legislation.

Novotney said that as a representative for the entire student body, he wanted to voice students’ concerns and that the city council did not understand them.

He added that he would like to have the ordinance sent back to the liquor commission.

The friction between council members and students came to a head when Guess said other towns do not have the price wars that go on in other towns.

Upon hearing this, junior economics major Tim Monaco blurted, “Have you ever been to Carbondale?”

As the room went silent, Mayor Van Buer asked students to adhere to meeting rules of conduct and remain silent.

In response, Monaco and several other students stood up and walked out.

As they did, one of them said to the entire council, “Grow some balls and go the whole way: just make it a dry town.”

In the hallway, a student who walked out said he was going to the bars while beer prices remained cheap.

The student representatives from the SA remained for the council vote results ­— a 4-3 vote in favor of the “Happy Hour Prohibited” ordinance.

“We represented the students’ interests and they chose to ignore it,” Novotney said on the bus ride back.