Bars seek ID change at Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A group of tavern and liquor store owners near Purdue University is asking school officials to add the birth dates of students to their identification cards.\nMembers of the Campus Community Bar Retail Coalition say such a step would help them curb underage drinking.\nUnderage customers could be identified more easily if their birth dates were included on student IDs, which are often used as a second form of identification, said Chris Watson, owner of the Boiler Room.\nThe coalition urged the change in a letter written last month to Thomas Robinson, the university's vice president for student services. Robinson responded that he would support the request, although he did not have administrative responsibility for ID cards.\n"I'm very pleased at the development with the student IDs," Watson told the Journal and Courier of Lafayette for a story Monday. "That's probably one of the first things we asked for from Purdue."\nThe group's member businesses say they also have agreed to a standard set of rules of carding customers in order to avoid perceptions that one is more lax than another, said Tammy Loew, alcohol risk reduction coordinator for Purdue's student wellness office.\nOfficials are working to reduce underaged drinking as the time nears for university's annual Grand Prix activities on April 26. The weekend usually results in more than 100 alcohol-related arrests each year.\nState Excise Police patrols around the campus include juvenile squads, which detain teenagers found with alcohol, Sgt. John Copeland said.\n"It means we're minus two or three officers while the state of Indiana is paying very expensive baby sitters," he said.