By Taylor Dobbs, News Staff
Students, along with Student Government Association (SGA) President Michael Sabo, got a chance to drink beer on the university’s dime Tuesday night as part of “Pint with the President,” an event designed to encourage responsible drinking and student feedback.
The event was sponsored by SGA and the Office of Prevention and Education at Northeastern (OPEN).
Sabo said he was excited to see the event – an idea that emerged during his campaign – come to fruition.
“This was something I talked about months ago, so it’s great that it’s actually happening,” he said.
More than 40 students 21 and older attended the event at the Varsity Club in Matthews Arena, where caterers from Rebecca’s Cafe served four six-ounce Samuel Adams samples along with complimentary snacks.
OPEN Director Amaura Kemmerer acknowledged drug education offices don’t commonly sponsor events with alcohol involved, but said they were important. She said OPEN wanted to create a safe and responsible environment.
Kemmerer said she saw an opportunity to provide a context in which students could “drink in a way that we would consider low-risk but have an aspect of being social and enjoyable.”
One thing Kemmerer prioritized, she said, was the way the alcohol was distributed.
“I did indicate that it would be important to me that we would not only have a limit and that we spaced it in a way that people wouldn’t come in and have two drinks and leave,” she said.
Two of the samples, Samuel Adams’ Cherry Wheat and their signature Boston Lager, were available when the event started at 5 p.m. The other two samples, Alpine Spring and an IPA, weren’t available until an hour later.
Both Sabo and Kemmerer said they thought the event served its purpose of teaching students the practice of responsible drinking in a social environment. Sabo said the location, Matthews Arena’s upscale Varsity Club, was a part of that decision.
“That was really the one space that stuck out to me in the sense that it was pretty classy,” he said. “It was something that really fit the objective I was trying to achieve in the sense that we’re trying to preach responsible drinking and practice responsible drinking in a responsible setting.”
Kemmerer said not only did she consider the educational aspect a success, but she also hopes to co-sponsor similar events in the future.
“There’s a whole variety of ways that we reach out to students,” she said, “and I do see this as a piece of what we call the puzzle of how we work together to create this healthy, positive culture around alcohol.”
Sabo said, apart from going without incident (the two Northeastern University Division of Public Safety officers present did not have to remove or discipline anyone), he received some good input from students.
Besides getting feedback about how to better reach students by email, Sabo said Matthews Arena’s open skate events were a popular topic.
“Right now we have open skate hours almost every day, but the critical problem or issue we’re facing right now is the lack of actual skates,” he said. “So what I’ll be working on is following up with the new [vice president of student affairs] Laura Wankel, and student affairs to see if we can contract with a vendor for that.”
