IOWA CITY -- The handsome and stately home of the University of Iowa is not one of those college towns where kids get all liquored up and provoke the cops into big ugly confrontations.
But it is a campus whose students are fond of drinking -- many would say too fond -- and that has sparked a town-gown quarrel over so-called binge drinking, downing five or more drinks in a single sitting.
A Nov. 6 vote in Iowa City to raise the age of entry into bars is one of a growing number of efforts nationwide that try -- in big ways and small -- to discourage drinking behavior that, according to study from Columbia University, affects half of the nation's college students.
"We've gone from a regional shopping center to a regional drinking destination," said John Clayton, a business owner and one of the backers of the proposed ordinance to prevent anyone younger than 21 from being in a bar after 10 p.m.
The law would not change the legal drinking age, which is 21 nationwide, but it would boot 19- and 20-year-olds out the door, right at the start of the peak nighttime drinking hours.
Predictably, the bar owners and most students younger than 21 hate the idea, arguing the proposed ordinance will succeed only in sending thousands of students into unregulated house parties off campus.
"As long as this culture of drinking is here, there is no single answer to binge drinking," said Leah Cohen, a longtime bar and restaurant owner and leader of the opposition. "This is just going to lead to the destruction of neighborhoods."
Surprisingly, university president Sally Mason has punted, saying she won't take a position on the matter.
While there is wide agreement that excessive drinking is a problem in Iowa City and a recognition on both sides that students won't be deterred, there is no consensus on how to lower the nightly consumption.
Nationwide, some schools have restricted alcohol advertising and forced alcohol out of fraternity and sorority houses. Others have dramatically increased the number of Friday classes, in hopes of discouraging weekend binge drinking starting on Thursday night. Iowa will add more Friday classes next year.
Several Big 10 schools have launched programs designed to change student behavior, emphasizing the potential health and career risks of excessive drinking.
And Drake University, in Des Moines, recently imposed what is known as a vomit tax: If you throw up in the dorm from drinking, there's an $80 fine attached to the cleanup.
The Iowa City proposal is spurred by a Harvard University study reporting nearly 70 percent of University of Iowa students engaged recently in binge drinking, compared with 49 percent nationwide. Although the numbers may suggest a large nighttime portrait of drunken students falling like dominoes, the reality in Iowa City mirrors that of most other college towns.
Like hamsters, students come alive at night and line up outside bars, starting about 11 p.m., and begin the nightly socializing. The vast majority, bar owners say, walk home in a straight line.
till, things have changed. Mike Porter, who owns The Summit, a popular downtown bar that allows 19- and 20-year-olds to enter, said when he got into the business two decades ago, 80 percent of his alcohol sales were beer, with 20 percent hard liquor. Today those numbers have flipped.
Porter said the change is due in part to liquor being less expensive and providing a "quicker buzz" for students. He said his bartenders vigorously watch patrons and noted that Iowa City bars pushed for an ordinance passed several years ago to keep 18-year-olds out.
"Yeah, some students drink too much, but it's not exclusive to age," Porter said.
If the ordinance is adopted, 19-year-old freshman Alicia Connolly of Epworth, Iowa, said students will go to house parties. Young women, she said, will go with some trepidation.
"I feel a whole lot safer in bars and in the downtown area because there are more police," Connolly said, citing a concern about sexual assaults.
Bars have become a big economic engine in downtown Iowa City, replacing some of the retail establishments that left when a new mega-mall was built in nearby Coralville. In the past 20 years, the number of bar and restaurant liquor licenses has leaped fourfold, to about 50.
Those numbers are viewed in different lights. Rick Dobyns, a physician and supporter of the ordinance, said it is proof that there are too many bars in Iowa City.
"Increased [alcohol] access leads to increased use. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out," Dobyns said.
Cohen countered that bars and restaurants have filled the retail void and made Iowa City an attractive entertainment center. She said her group has registered more than 2,000 students on a campus of about 30,000 in advance of next month's vote.
The effectiveness of raising the bar entry age to 21 in college towns is mixed.
In East Lansing, Mich., home of Michigan State University, bars have voluntarily embraced 21-year-old entry; when combined with other alcohol education efforts, problem drinking has been reduced, according to police and university officials.
In Cedar Falls, Iowa, home of Northern Iowa University, the 8-year-long experiment with 21-year-old bar entry was repealed in 1998 after it was judged ineffective.
"This is like squeezing a water balloon," said East Lansing Police Chief Tim Wibert. "You squeeze one part and it just gets bigger someplace else." The policy led to more off-campus house parties, he said, but rigorous policing and student cooperation have reduced the number of large parties.
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