CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia University’s Board of Governors voted 10-5 Friday to allow beer sales at sporting events on campus, beginning with home football games in the 2011 regular season.
In their meeting Friday at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center in Charleston, board members heard a presentation from Athletic Director Oliver Luck and then commenced a question and answer segment. Immediately after, the board voted to pass the proposal and asked the athletic department to “provide a report on the implementation of this ammended Policy 18” next June.
Luck said he was “pleased” with the approval, which he believes will adress “coarseness” in the stands and “increase civility.” The policy change will go into effect as WVU prohibits smoking in public areas of the stadium and ends its practice of allowing re-entry at Mountaineer Field during games.
“I believe we have taken a step forward toward our goal of a safer, friendlier and more civil game day experience,” Luck said in a prepared statement.
Luck spoke for eight minutes before the Board as he presented a series of slides and talking points. He was joined by University Police Chief Bob Roberts, the University Police’s Manager of Investigative Services and retired Morgantown Police Chief Phil Scott and Scott”s successor, Ed Preston.
The discussion between them and the board members lasted 24 minutes and involved a series of questions from members for and against the amendment.
“I think it was an excellent discussion and it was important we had that discussion and the questions were asked,” said Board chairwoman Carolyn Long.
Long, the outgoing chair, said she does not participate in votes unless she has to break a tie, but said she would have voted for the amendment. She was counted in the official record, along with Ellen Cappellanti, Tom Clark, Tom Flaherty, William Nutting, incoming chairman Drew Payne, James Rogers, Jo Morrow and faculty representatives Nigel Clark and Robert Griffith.
“Anybody who thinks there isn’t alcohol at Mountaineer Field is either naive or blind,” Flaherty said. “It’s been going on at every game. It is there. This is a step forward to try to control that.”
James Dailey, Diane Lewis, Ed Robinson, Will Wilmoth and student representative Chris Lewallen voted against allowing beer sales.
“Not everybody does it,” said Wilmoth. “I think the way the Board decided to do it — which I support — is responsible. I just had some reservations whether it was something we should do. “
Wilmoth asked Luck if schools in the the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference sell alcohol. Luck said they did not.
“Adding more beer to the athletic facilities doesn’t seem to me to be a control mechanism,” Wilmoth said. “But increasing some things, like security, and not doing the pass-out practice, which we did before, makes it much better.”
Charles Vest and Ray Lane were not in attendance.
Luck revealed more details about WVU’s ideas for the “controlled sales” at the stadium. He said a customer will have to present a valid ID for every purchase and can only buy two beers at a time. Luck said the concessionaire will sell plastic bottles because it was “the best way to curb spillage.” Luck said many who opined during the public comment period were worried about the spills from filled cups.
Sales will be cut off in the middle of the third quarter, which Luck said was “the common practice amongst all college and pro teams who sell alcohol.” Luck said there will be no vendors circulating the stands to sell beer and there would be no sales in the student section.
Luck said there are plans to add to security and staffing for game day operations and money for such measures has been allocated for the budget in the next fiscal year.
He added upgrades were being made at Mountaineer Field, as well as the WVU Coliseum, to improve cell phone reception and the self-policing practice among fans to textincidents and complaints to security.
“I think it would be irresponsible not to bump up security and staffing and all the other things,” Luck said. “We do a great job preparing. I think we can do an even better job from the operational perspective as well as the preparation perspective.”
In other business, tuition and fees were increased 4.9 percent, which the Board touted as “among the lowest in the country.” The Board approved a $938 million combined budget for the university’s main and regional campuses. Included in that is more than $15 million in salary increases for faculty and staff.
The Board also approved a multi-year $159.5 million budget for capital projects as part of the university’s strategic plan. Included in that is a new engineering research building, a new agricultural sciences building and a new physical activities and sport sciences facility.
“The big picture is the low tuition increases we’ve been able to do,” Long said. “We have some of the lowest in the country and therefore we continue to make college accessible to students and that looks good to our faculty and staff.
“Of course, we were also able to give a salary increase. We have a $15 million pool that will be used for the salary for classified staff. We will be fully funding the scuhedule. Red-line staff will be getting raises, which they usually do not, and the faculty will be getting raises according to merit and the way that process works.”
