Various institutions across the nation have bars or pubs in their student unions. Der Rathskeller at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is modeled after a German beer tavern and hosts conferences and meetings during business hours, then tops off steins and pitchers after dark. The venue is especially popular in the summer, says Wisconsin junior Keith Foster, 21, who also says he feels safer drinking there. “It’s harder to do sketchy stuff or get roofied because it’s such a public place.”
But students don’t just come to booze, says Marc Kennedy, UW’s communications director, adding that carding policies are “very strict.” Violators are punishable by the university’s dean. “It’s a place to mingle, not to drink,” he says. Beer sales account for $1.5 million, 6 percent, of the student union’s total revenue, not including an additional $200,000 generated by alcohol revenue from catering events.