Student Affairs planned to offer beer tasting on Saturday in what would have been the first school-sponsored event with alcohol since 2002. But an “unforeseen procedural snafu arose,” Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell said.
In an e-mail statement, Bushnell told the Chronicle that the “snafu” prevented Student Affairs from getting the liquor permit from the state.
“Going forward, Student Affairs anticipates that it will be able to secure the necessary liquor permits for future events,” Bushnell said.
Three days before the event, students planning to attend were notified via Facebook message that one of the towns needed to sign off on the liquor permit could not come through before Saturday, so beer tasting could not legally be offered.
“I want you all to know that this event has the full support of Student Affairs, Residential Life and everyone at Quinnipiac, so please don’t assume this was a Res. Life issue,” senior Brian Walach, community assistant for Whitney Village and Quinnipiac graduate student in the M.A.T. program, wrote in the Oct. 27 message to students. “I can promise you that we are continuing plans already in place for events in November…and onward for which we intend on having alcohol at because it is something you all wanted as part of the Senior Experience.”
Associate Vice President for Public Affairs John Morgan said Chief of Security and Safety Dave Barger was unavailable to speak on the matter.
According to state records, the last time alcohol was legally offered on campus was at the Bobcat Den in 2002, then known as the Rathskeller.
“I personally am going to do everything in my power to have a holiday beer tasting to supplement any programming we already have in place,” Walach wrote in the message.
Held Saturday, Oct. 30 in the Rocky Top Student Center, the Oktoberfest event offered caricature drawings, psychic readings, pumpkin pie and cider, pumpkin ice cream, drink cozies, a raffle of Quinnipiac vs. Yale hockey tickets, t-shirts, apple cider donuts and food catered from Ray and Mike’s Deli and Dairy, Aunt Chilada’s Mexican restaurant and Side Street Bar and Grille.
Colin Wilkinson, a first-year graduate student in Quinnipiac’s health care management program, deejayed the event under the pseudonym DJ Tanner.
Wilkinson, who started deejaying when he was 12 years old, attended Quinnipiac as an undergraduate and has been providing music for school events since.
“I like to help out whenever I can,” Wilkinson said. “This is an awesome event. I wish they had the beer tasting, but it still gets people out of their dorms.”
Senior roommates and accounting majors Alicia McGlynn and Tisha Parris drove from their house in Cheshire for the event. They agreed the postponement of the beer tasting was upsetting and would have brought more people to the event.
“It’s definitely better than most things RAs put on,” McGlynn said. “I like that it’s a strictly senior event.”
Junior history major Jason Milde also said the beer tasting would have been a nice touch.
“It doesn’t affect the time people are having, it’d just be extra,” Milde said.
Despite the alcohol issue, the event attracted more than 100 students.
Senior IDD major Chad Harris-Williams and senior accounting major Kareem Gentles came for the free food and to see their friends, not the beer tasting.
“It still is fun,” Harris-Williams said. “We get to use the beautiful lodge. It’s a good Saturday morning event because no one wants to cook their food.”
