Campus nightlife and liquor sales may be impacted by the threat of suspension for hosting large gatherings, as the university handed down over 200 interim suspensions to students last week. Credit: Sarah Szilagy | Campus Editor
Even with the possibility of suspension, for some students, the party never ends.
Campus nightlife is still alive and well, but the threat of being added to the list of more than 200 students who were suspended for hosting large gatherings off campus last week and modifications to the operating hours of bars are changing the way in which students party — and may be influencing campus liquor sales.
The university placed 228 students on interim suspension last week for violating the Student Code of Conduct and Together as Buckeyes Pledge, according to Student Life spokesperson Dave Isaacs. University spokesperson Ben Johnson said that Student Life teams patrolled the off-campus area to report gatherings of more than 10 people.
The 10 p.m. liquor curfew enforced on campus-area bars by the state is changing the traditional schedule of campus partying, Dan Starek, owner of Oldfield’s North Fourth Tavern and Leo’s on the Alley, said.
Starek said that students are no longer ending their night at the bars. Instead, they are getting as “drunk as possible” before cut-off and then going to house parties.
“I think people are drinking during the day at their place, then going to the bar and then trying to get drunk drunk and do shots and do liquor — and we’re selling a ton more liquor than we are beer right now — and then heading to a party or heading to their house to drink beer after that,” Starek said.
Partiers are not going straight home from the bar, however. Liquor and convenience stores near campus said that students are now coming in at an increased rate in order to purchase more booze for the next event.
Tobacco International on East 13th Avenue has seen an unusual increase in beer sales over the last week, even with the return of students to campus. Jack Leonhardt, a manager at Tobacco International and an Ohio State alum, said the store was making sales similar to those of football game days.
Leonhardt said customers waited in line for six hours to purchase alcohol and that the store saw a bump in traffic from 9-11 p.m. on weekends. All of this led to them running out of cases of beer, Leonhardt said.
“Bud Light, we were running low on Natty (Natural Light). We run out of White Claw, Trulys — the seltzers are really big now, so we’ve doubled up on those sales. Mich Ultra, Busch Light; the bigger cases we’ve been selling out of a lot,” Leonhardt said.
United Dairy Farmers on the corner of East 12th Avenue and North High Street has seen a 5 percent increase in their beer sales since students returned to campus, according to store manager Phillip Watkins. He said an increase in sales when students return is normally only 2 or 3 percent.
Students are now having to take extra steps to ensure that they are protected from any reprimands from the university, which, through the Office of Student Conduct, has already cracked down on off-campus parties.
Mason Tolbert, a third-year in anthropology, said he believes parties will start moving indoors due to the threat of students being reported outside of off-campus residences.
“I feel like I do see a lot of people having porch parties still, but they’re smaller than before,” Tolbert said. “It’s not like a whole yard of people. But I think people are probably going to move it in.”
Tolbert said that he has seen students taking pictures at parties with masks on for social media, but will then remove them and wear them on their wrists for the duration of the party to “cover their ass.”
Tolbert said students are not following physical distancing guidelines at house parties and he hopes people eventually heed the university’s warnings when it comes to off-campus partying.
“I hope everybody takes this seriously and stays in for a couple more months just so maybe, hopefully, next year it can look a little bit more normal,” Tolbert said. “And that I hope no one’s actually willing to get suspended to have a party.”
