The line the University of Colorado walks on alcohol may be one of the most delicate in higher education. On one side is a campus image clouded by party-school rankings, several alcohol-related tragedies, including the death last year of an 18-year-old freshman, and a sex-and-booze recruiting scandal that staggered the Buffaloes’ football program.
On the other side is the locally owned, long-supportive Coors Brewing Co. The Coors name, by virtue of a $5 million gift, is on Colorado’s basketball arena, and family foundation donations to the school have totaled nearly $9.5 million in the last three decades.