Front Page  »  

Marx, Cal Poly ask bars not to open before graduation

May 2, 2014
Jan Marx

Jan Marx

A longstanding tradition of outgoing Cal Poly students drinking downtown on the morning of their graduation ceremonies may soon come to an end if bar owners fulfill a request made by Mayor Jan Marx and a university administrator.

On April 16, Marx and Cal Poly Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Humphrey wrote a letter to the San Luis Obispo Downtown Association asking that bars not serve alcohol until 9 a.m. on June 14 and 15, the days of the upcoming Cal Poly graduation ceremonies. In years past, bars have opened at 6 a.m. on graduation days, and students have come to drink with family and friends prior to venturing over to campus for the festivities.

Marx and Humphrey stated that intoxicated students have created unsafe conditions on graduation day and have overshadowed the ceremonies.

“All too often, the commencement ceremonies are overshadowed and become unsafe due to the conduct of intoxicated students who have visited city bars prior to the ceremonies,” Marx and Humphrey wrote. “This ultimately spoils the moving graduation experience for others.”

The Mayor and Cal Poly administrator said they understand that they are asking downtown bars to make a financial sacrifice. The bars have yet to announce publicly whether they will agree to the request.

Many Cal Poly students have criticized the plan to close the bars, saying it will only send their drinking to different locations.


Loading...
Subjects:                         
Related:


40 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Wait a minute!Hold on…backup the beer truck. By the time these kids have reached graduation day, shouldn’t they be responsible for their own behavior?

Why is Marx attempting to vilify the bars?

Have we become so nanny-like that we must make sure our ADULT UNIVERSITY soon to be graduates are coddled in a manner that encourages them to NEVER grow up and take on personal responsibility?

Bad move comrade Marx


0

Guess you didn’t read the story. Nobody’s “vilified” the bars. The issue is drunk brats ruining graduation day for the kids who actually learned something in college and want to celebrate their achievement and full-on move into post-college responsible adulthood. The bars’ ridiculous 6 a.m. opening simply encourages the boorish behavior of a few that ruins the day for the majority. Now, if you don’t have a problem with that, and think a few drunks should be entitled to ruin the day for others, just say so. Don’t go off on your stupid rant against the mayor. It just displays for all your lack of decency.


0

There as mch chance of the bars closing in SLO as there was of the bath houses closing in SF back in the early 80’s


0

If the students want to get s**t faced before the graduation and ruin it for others, then why doesn’t the city just put on extra cops on the day in question to make a monetary killing in DUI arrests?


This concept will eliminate the drunkards from the graduation and may save a life or two, fill the coffers of the city at their ignorant and drunken expense, and will set an example for next year’s festivities. Everyone wins!


“Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!” (Isaiah 5:11)


0

You butt out Jan Marx!


These students are old enough to drink, to vote and die in the military for their country.


This is none of governments business!


And you have the gall to ask for a raise for yourself and the city council, all the while knowing this action will cause a financial hardship on those establishments.


Why not close the bars on Friday and Saturday nights? That would save the city a ton of money in law enforcement and less aggravation to the law abiding citizens living near the downtown area.


Why can’t Jan Marx do her job like enforcing the hidden trash can ordinance and make it illegal to sleep (in your car).


Jan Marx is really beginning to sound like a MARXIST.


0

You make some defensible points right up to the end, when you invoke the “Marxist” label. How is that, in this particular matter, the Mayor is urging that the means of production be placed in the collective hands of those who perform labor?


0

K99


It was a stretch to use the MARXIST term and is not relevant to my argument.


I believe the request to close establishments to circumvent the problem is ass backwards and approaches frightening as to governmental intrusion.


Simply arrest those that have obviously over indulged based on current laws.


But don’t try to shift the solution by equating that the means justifies the end.


0

I’m surprised that the Cal Poly Foundation hasn’t decided to build a pub on campus, within staggering distant, for that very special day. This may solve the unmet needs for safety and issues with the other town (SLO).


0

Part of me says why do we constantly make our own behavior someone else’s problem. The students are the ones drinking, the students are the ones that need to be controlled, not the business owner. Another attempt to regulate not the person with the problem but someone just doing what they make a living at, which is legal. Government never wants to make the real responsible party responsible.


0

well put


0

I can see how puking on the Dean as he hands you the diploma might put a damper on the otherwise “moving graduation ceremony”, however, if the kids want to get drunk before the 9 AM graduation, chances are they will do so whether the downtown bars are open or not.


How about the bars closing after the graduation ceremony and saving the rest of us the aggravation? Any takers? Didn’t think so.


0

Come on Jan! They are just trying to be the happiest of the happy in the happiest place.

What did you do on your graduation day? I bet it wasn’t alcohol.


0

She huffed and she puffed and then they headed to Canada.


0

I would guess that most of the grads are over 21. They are going to get alcohol whether the bars are open or not. If I owned a bar in downtown SLO, it might finally be time to tell Ms. Marks to stick it where the sun don’t shine…!


0

My exact sentiments.


0

Did you read the letter? It was a request, made gently and well. It invited the bar owners to engage in a discussion about the issue, while recognizing that they were being asked to make a sacrifice. It was civil, and polite.


And then there’s you, and then there’s Cindy, of course, who always is a nasty one. While some attempt to engage in discourse and actually to elevate it, there always will be those who, hiding behind their veil of anonymity, seek to throw stones, make childish threats and act in a fashion that would be wholly consistent with many an inebriated 20-year-old.


0

“… who always is a nasty one…”


Way to “elevate”.


0

Oh, I get it, Kevin: By calling out Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling, I’m “playing the race card.” By suggesting that church should be separated from state, pursuant to our Constitution and the clear intent of those who wrote it, I am “attacking Christianity!” And when I point out rude behavior, I am the rude one. Mm-hmm. Swing and a miss, dune-boy.


0

And your name is? Geez …


0

Did she send a letter to the grocery stores, liquor stores or drug stores. What a waste of time and money AGAIN!


0
1 2 3