By Carla Young
To pub crawl or not to pub crawl, that is the question.
The Students’ Union Alcohol Policy states that the consumption of alcohol cannot be the primary focus of SU club events on or off campus. It is difficult to get insurance to cover high-risk activities such as pub crawls and, last year, clubs had trouble getting insurance to cover off-campus events at all.
The Faculty of Management clubs are among the campus clubs who are affected by the ban on pub crawls.
“The Social Exchange oversees all social activities within the Faculty of Management, and up until last year, pub crawls and similar events were an integral part of our social calendar, so there is no doubt that the ban on pub crawls has impacted us,” said TSE President Wendy Tynan. “They were great events to get a large group of people together so it has been more of a challenge to think up events that attract that many students.”
At the Sept. 16 Alcohol Awareness meeting, the SU tried to strike a balance between clubs’ desires to hold off-campus events with the demands of its pocketbook, according to SU Operations & Finance Commissioner Mike Bradshaw.
“As a SU we have to cater to clubs, but a million dollars a year inSUrance is not practical,” said Bradshaw. “We have to find a middle ground.”
The middle ground is a new insurance policy from J and H Marsh & McLennan that allows clubs to hold off-campus events. For a cost of $5,378 annually, clubs will now be able to hold off-campus events.
“The new insurance plan means that clubs do not have to purchase insurance from Party Alcohol Liabilty insurance to have off-campus events,” said SU Vice-president op-fi Amanda Affonso. “We are now recognizing and taking responsibility instead of ignoring the events that are occurring.”
In order to hold an off-campus event, club executives must provide the following: club event ‘forms’ to identify the nature of the activities and participants, participant ‘waivers’ that state people are aware alcohol consumption is taking place, minimum liability insurance statements from participating facilities, co-insured additions from participating facilities, and a nominal fee, yet to be determined for club insurance coverage to defray costs with the SU.
While many of the requirements may seem obvious, things like co-insured additions may not be clear.
“For the co-insured aspect,” explained Affonso, “a club, for example, has to be a named insurer under the bar. You have to call up the bar, let them know you’re having an event at their establishment and would like to be named as an insurer. A copy of that has to be given to the SU.”
Affonso hopes that these changes will satisfy and remedy problems experienced in previous years.
“At the awareness meeting, clubs were asking great questions,” said Affonso. “There’s been fairly positive feedback. I think it’s a step in the right direction.”
“Overall, I am not particularily pleased with the policy, but we don’t have that much of a choice about it so we’ve made do with it and had a great time last year and this year promises only to be better,” said Tynan.
If any club would like more information, they can contact the SU and Affonso at 220-6551.