CU Liquor News; Emergency rules announced for "Unofficial" in Champaign

From the News-Gazette.

Emergency rules announced for "Unofficial" in Champaign

The nanny state is at it again! (This time, it's the nanny city)

Selected highlights in the article:

Bars in the campus area must raise their minimum entry age from 19 to 21 during Unofficial, and they must also have a doorman aged 21 or older checking identification at the entrance.

That's not necessarily a bad thing anyway.

Bars and liquor stores in the campus area will not be allowed to serve alcohol before 11 a.m. on March 5. Bars also may not serve pitchers or shots of undiluted alcohol, and all drinks must be served in a plastic or paper cup.

What is a shot of undiluted alcohol? Does everything have to be a mixed drink? No pitchers? Plastic or paper cup?

The mayor’s office will not issue any keg permits for private parties, making it illegal to possess more than one keg per residence.

Attention homebrewers, during unofficial if you own more than one keg, you are a criminal. Thank you for that Champaign.

Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day is a daylong drinking event in which some University of Illinois students participate. Last year, Champaign police issued 351 citations on Unofficial, and spent more than $13,000 on police overtime, Champaign police Lt. Brad Yohnka said Friday.

That's an example of throwing around numbers that seem big. But they left off the biggest number. Paying $13,000 seems like a lot. Giving out 351 citations seems like a lot. In order to recoup the $13,000 and not make a profit off of those citations, the city would have to charge $37.04 per citation. The fine is more than $300, so the city took in $57,198.96 that day (300-37.04=162.96*351=57198.96).

I can throw around numbers that make it seem small. According to wiki, there are 31,173 undergraduate students at the school. If they don't turn 21 until the middle of their junior year, that's roughly 16,000 students who are under 21. That means that only 351 of roughly 16000 people got ticketed. 1 percent of 16000 is 160, 2 percent is 320, so only 2% of students got cited last year. How is that a problem?

If Champaign took the money, they would only have to bitch about $2,000 that they would have paid.