St. Thomas approved six new locations around campus to serve liquor, allowing those over 21 to be served alcohol at 26 spots on campus during some events.
The new locations, which were approved on Feb. 1, include meeting rooms in Tommie East and Tommie North, the Northsider dining hall, the Iversen Center for Faith, indoor and outdoor patios, the Campus Service Center, Palmer Athletic Field and North Athletic Field.
“The license allows the university to serve alcohol to guests who attend invitation-only events,” Andy Ybarra, associate vice president of public relations and communications, wrote in an email on March 3. “To be clear, St. Thomas will not serve alcohol to the public via concessions during athletic events.”
Invitation-only events include donor and wedding receptions, alumni events and dinners hosted by university leaders.
“The expanded license allows the university to serve alcohol in the new facilities that have been constructed on campus since the original license was obtained,” Ybarra said.
Every year, St. Thomas’ liquor license is renewed. The university submitted an application to the City of St. Paul to expand their current liquor license that was granted to them in 2012.
“The process of having liquor at an event is tough,” Executive Director of Food Services Steve Griffin said.
First, the university must go through catering.
“Basically, catering looks at it and sees if there is food available because we can’t serve alcohol if there is no food. Then, they ask if it is an event where it is allowed to have liquor,” Griffin said.
Next, the request goes to Griffin himself, who “makes sure that catering does its job” and that they are “following all the laws.”
Once Griffin approves the request, it moves on to public safety.
“Public safety reviews it again, and they schedule an officer to be there. If it is a small gathering and doesn’t require an officer, or if it’s a bigger gathering that we have to fence out,” Griffin said.
In the last stage, the request is sent to Pamela Peterson, the director of Food Services.
“When Pam says ‘yes’ and checks our boxes, whoever asked for the request gets a confirmation that it has been approved, and within that everyone on the chain gets a notification,” Griffin said.
Griffin is still in his first few months at his new position as he had previously worked in the mailroom and recently switched to head of dining services.
“Before getting into this job and looking at everything,” Griffin said, “I’m blown away by how much the university does behind the scenes.”
Annabelle Wiskus can be reached at wisk9881@stthomas.edu.