BYOB at UMass

Insight on the News, April 17, 2000 by Stephen Goode

Pusillanimous administrators at the University of Massachusetts -- sometimes called the "People's Republic of Amherst" or "Zoo Mass" -- narrowly averted a major educational crisis last month when school officials decided to freeze at 24 the number of beers students of legal drinking age may keep in their dormitory rooms at any one time.

The administrators at first had agreed to raise the number of beers students 21 and older could store in their dorm rooms to 30, in response to a request from the Student Government Association.

Interim vice chancellor for student affairs Javier Cevallos told the Associated Press that the decision came after officials learned that local liquor stores had begun selling 30 beers to a case.

After having second thoughts, administrators ordered that the 24-beer limit must stay in place -- pending a campuswide review which might result in an even lower limit. For the people suspects that, whatever the limit is or may become, the same 24 cans are not likely to stay around a college dorm at Amherst for very long.

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