ND, local police,
TIM LOGAN
In Focus Editor
At 1:15 on the morning of Friday, Oct. 13, Finnigan's Irish Pub was hopping, with music blaring and the dance floor crowded.
A quarter-hour later, the music had stopped, the lights were on, and 147 underage students who had been celebrating the start of Fall Break were thinking about their court dates.
The bar, notorious for serving minors, was raided by Indiana State Excise Police and officers from the South Bend Police Department. It was the third time in three years that a prominent underage bar has been so raided, and it again raised questions of Notre Dame's involvement in fighting underage drinking off-campus.
The University was not directly involved in the bust, school officials say. But they did know about underage drinking at Finnigan's and had discussed the bar in their ongoing dialogue with local law enforcement about student safety off campus.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that something was going on at Finnigan's," said Bill Kirk, assistant vice president for Residence Life. "Finnigan's has been a concern for a lot of folks for a long time."
A matter of safety
For obvious reasons, Notre Dame has been involved in discussion with local authorities for years. They meet regularly to talk about issues like football weekend traffic, neighborhood concerns and student safety. And with student safety comes student drinking.
Both administrators and local police acknowledge that drinking off-campus can put students at risk. Walking home late at night from off-campus houses, bars and apartment complexes is sometimes a risky endeavor. Students walking home drunk, according to Kirk, take an even bigger risk.
"They are the best victims of crime," he said.
On November 10, 1997, a student was shot while returning from an off-campus bar early one Sunday morning. There have also been numerous incidents of intoxicated students and visitors to campus being hit by cars late at night.
"The safety issue is a priority. I don't think students out there realize this," said Capt. John Williams of the South Bend Police. "Everybody has this attitude out there that it can't happen to them. Well, it can."
So the University and local law enforcement discuss student safety concerns. But those discussions do not mean that Notre Dame can get a bar raided, according to Kirk. School officials can, and do, bring underage drinking to the attention of police, however.
Notre Dame's role
"We can't [call a raid]. We don't have that ability or authority," he said. "Like anyone else in the community, we can tell them what's going on if we have a complaint."
Bar raids, such as the ones at Finnigan's, and at Bridget McGuire's and Irish Connection in 1998, are planned and carried out by the Indiana State Excise Police, not local authorities. The Excise Police are a part of the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which licenses and regulates permits to make or sell alcohol across the state.
The Excise Police had likely received complaints about the Finnigan's, Williams said, and decided to raid the bar. The state agency then asked the local police for assistance, which South Bend gave, and the bust was carried out.
Smaller raids are handled by the local authorities.
The South Bend Police will investigate, and break up, parties in private residences, such as Turtle Creek's annual Rally in the Alley, or the house and block parties that regularly spring up on weekends, if they receive complaints from neighbors, according to Williams.
"When we get a complaint, we send someone out to investigate," he said. "We don't do those things on impulse."
And generally, off-campus events are monitored not by the University, but by local police, according to Kirk.
"They tell us about most of the things," he said. "I don't know about most of the things that go on."
But there are some exceptions.
The University steps in
In September, senior Brian Jochum was planning the Budweiser Big House Olympics, a party centered around drinking competitions between students who had spent time abroad in different countries. Kirk was informed of the party, and he contacted Jochum, to inform him of the potential consequences in line with duLac. Jochum canceled the party.
There are other stories like this and many instances of students being sanctioned by Residence Life for off-campus alcohol violations — it is Notre Dame's policy to hold students who violate local laws accountable. But Kirk said concern for student safety is at the root of them all.
"The first concern for me is our student's safety," he said. "I think that some people think there's some big conspiracy. That's just not the case."
Understanding the problem
To help understand student drinking, both off campus and on, Notre Dame is conducting a wide-ranging study of student attitudes about alcohol use.
Student Affairs officials will hold focus groups with people from all sides of the drinking issue. One meeting they've already held was with local bar owners, and it was a good dialogue, according to Kirk.
"They're business people. The vast majority of them are good, decent folks," he said. He also noted the Indiana law prohibiting minors from entering a bar, and pointed out that violating it is not good for business.
"They will lose their license," he said.
Nevertheless, some local bars continue to serve minors, catering to the large college student market in South Bend. Excise police have now raided three since January, 1998, and each time another bar has filled the underage void.
This has some people looking for other options.
"You shut one down, and another one springs up," Fisher Hall senator Dan Barabas said. "Everyone knows that, so that's why we're looking at alternatives."
Barabas chairs the Campus Life Council's Task Force on Off-Campus Bars, a committee formed by the CLC to study the issue of off-campus drinking. The group, which is comprised of students, rectors and administrators, does not exist to seek out and close bars that serve minors, Barabas said.
"No one's out there to bust bars or anything," he said.
Instead they will focus on alternatives — SUB events, residence hall activities, and athletics — and try to understand what drives students to drink off campus. And Notre Dame administrators will keep talking with the South Bend Police, trying to find a way to prevent illegal and abusive drinking outside the bounds of the campus.
Until the next time the music stops, and the lights come on, and dozens of underage bargoers start thinking about their court dates.
All News Stories for Wednesday, November 1, 2000
