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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Policy violations shut down Bunker

As of Sunday, March 6, operations of the student group running the Bunker have been suspended for the year, but the space in the Freeman International Center will likely be available in the future for events similar to those it has hosted in the past. This administrative decision came as a result of violations of state alcohol licensing requirements at the Mardi Gras event on March 5, according to Doug Adams, Associate Dean of Students.

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“The suspension of the Bunker was a culmination of things but indeed last week’s event was the tipping point,” said Matthew Biette, director of dining services and manager of the liquor licenses on campus. For the protection of the students involved, Biette would not give more detail than to say that there were “a number of potential problems that could have resulted in liquor violations.”

“We are pursuing options to reopen the space as soon as possible,” said Adams.

According to Vermont law, liquor license holders are prohibited from distributing alcohol to minors and serving alcohol to anyone who seems intoxicated, among other things. In addition, they must insure that their patrons have no more than two open drinks at once and that patrons maintain control of their drinks. Enforcement of these rules requires adequate staffing by people who are trained by the Department of Liquor Control.

Biette said there were no liquor license violations, but potential problems came to his attention after the event on March 5, at which point the decision was made to suspend the Bunker.

“The process involved CCAL and dining services staff working with the student leadership of the Bunker,” said Adams. “The student leadership has been very cooperative and helpful.”

Student members of the Bunker group attributed the suspension to clean-up issues.

“The state the bunker was left in after [the event on March 5] was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Alex Giammarco ’11, co-president of the Bunker.
The bunker was running in a way that was “not best for us or for the school,” said David Hild ’11, the other co-president of the Bunker. “The events overwhelmed the staffing we could provide.”
As an alcohol-serving venue, the Bunker is required to be staffed by students with Department of Liquor Control training. Regardless of liquor license issues, the Bunker staff recently had to cancel an event due to staffing shortages, according to Hannah Wilson ’11, Co-Chair of the MCAB concert committee.

The Bunker was created in 2008 to be a unique party venue on campus and offer a club atmosphere. This year, the Bunker has been working closely with the MCAB concert committee to provide more programming. MCAB has booked artists and DJs and the Bunker has provided event management staff and alcohol for the space out of its own budget, according to Wilson.

“[The Bunker] has been great to work with and up until this point, it was very easy to program anything there” said Wilson. “They were very willing to support us and what we were doing and for that we had a great working relationship.

“In previous years, the Bunker has programmed their own events, but this year we thought we could do more,” said Wilson. “As MCAB concerts, we have a larger budget and access to more resources and we have an entire committee who is interested in booking DJs and music so we thought we could channel some of that energy into the bunker.”

Although the Bunker student group has been suspended for the year, other student groups are interested in continuing to host events in the space.

“While it is still not clear how the Bunker will be utilized for future programming, MCAB hopes to continue to take advantage of the unique venue that the Bunker offers,” said Maria Perille ’11, president of MCAB. “One of MCAB's goals this year was to offer a wide variety of programming in venues across the campus in order to appeal to diverse student tastes. The Bunker provides a different social dynamic than a late night dance party in McCullough or Pearsons, for example, so we hope to continue to use the space in the future.”

“The logistics are going to be much more difficult without an organized student group managing the space for us,” said Wilson ’11. “It will require us to staff the events, increasing the burden on MCAB… From a concerts perspective I would love to see another student group take initiative and run the space without a liquor license.”

Wilson, who hopes programming will continue in about a month, said the closing of the Bunker “doesn’t really affect our programming that much because we can still put DJs in there and … serving beer is not that important because I honestly don’t think that the bunker attracts very many people of age. It’s great to have another bar venue on campus but I would rather have good programming than fight for one quarter of the college campus to be able to access cheap alcohol.”


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