The University of Iowa's long climb to #1

The University of Iowa's new designation as the country's #1 party school by The Princeton Review is sure to cause a lot of headaches among leaders at the UI and Iowa City, and all the folks charged with trying to steer the school's culture and reputation to something a little less "Animal House" and a little more "Good Will Hunting." Heck, they'd probably settle for "Revenge of the Nerds."

My biggest problem isn't anything more complicated than the question of what more there possibly is to say about this story. In my six years at The Gazette, first as a news reporter and now as a columnist, I think I've written about every possible angle. If you think of something, let me know.

Meanwhile, here's a news piece I wrote back in 2007 about my wild night tagging along with Ames Police, just before Iowa City voters rejected a proposal to ban 19- and 20-year-olds in bars:

Publication Name: THE GAZETTE

Publication Date: 10/21/2007

Headline: Ames' alcohol culture

Intro: Patrols help enforce ordinances, but problems exist with parties

Byline: Jennifer Hemmingsen

AMES - At 10:30 on a recent Saturday night, Iowa State University student Zeb Adams just had been kicked out of his night's first party and he was looking for the next one.

Adams, 20, a pre-business major from Omaha, Neb., said ISU students try to keep parties small to avoid attracting the attention of police, but the gatherings have a way of growing.

"It starts that you know most of the people there, but then as the night progresses, people call their friends and they call their friends," he said.

Ames Police Officer Andy Metcalfe found this one, at a six-story apartment building just off Welch Avenue, by following the sound of the booming bass down the hall. Standing to the side so he couldn't be seen through the door's peep-hole, he delivered a series of syncopated knocks until someone opened the door - her eyes growing wide at the sight of his uniform.

Next month, voters in Iowa City will decide whether to ban people under 21 from bars after 10 p.m. Opponents of the change say it will drive underage drinking underground.

Bar entry has been limited to legal drinkers for years in Ames, which has some folks looking that direction when trying to figure out the impact a 21-and-older ordinance in Iowa City may have on curbing underage drinking. Police here say they need a variety of approaches and a strong commitment from stakeholders to keep a handle on the ever-shifting young alcohol culture.

"There's no single answer," Ames Police Chief Charles Cychosz said.

"It's always moving. We can't say here's the rule, now it's fixed, on to the next issue. I wish it were that way."

Cooperation with ISU

Police work with ISU police and administrators on alcohol-related matters and meet quarterly with bar owners and managers. For the past three years, the Ames Police Department's Party Response Team has worked early in the evening to look for emerging parties and talk with their hosts before things get out of control.

The program started after the 2004 Veishea riots, to help build relationships between students and police, Ames Police Lt. Jeff Huff said. Officers talk to the hosts about how many people their house can safely hold and make sure hosts understand city ordinances and potential civil liabilities.

"It really is an effort to make early contact with those folks who may not understand city ordinances, who frankly may be holding a party that they don't understand might get out of control or what the problems and consequences might be," Cychosz said. "If the neighbors are complaining, the bottles are flying and the fence is on fire, we have to shut it down and we'll be citing people for that," he said. "I think it's nice for everyone if we can deal with it before it gets to that point."

Metcalfe said he can sock hosts and partygoers with citations for excessive noise, litter, underage consumption, tapping more than one keg at a time, public urination, parking violations and failing to prevent the consumption of alcohol by minors. The fines increase for repeat offenders.

On the third offense, landlords also get a fine, he said. Usually, hosts are cooperative and he just shuts the party down.

"They leave en masse, and then the next party you go to you see half the people you kicked out," he said.

Impact on wild parties

In Ames, regulations have all but extinguished massive fraternity parties, and out-of-control house parties are on the wane, Metcalfe said. Increasingly, he's finding parties at larger apartment complexes like Cyclone Plaza and Legacy Tower in Campustown, or the sprawling University Plains complex on the southwest edge of town.

"A lot of times, it's not one or two apartments but the majority of the floor is kind of joining together," he said.

Fern Kupfer is the only adult on her block of Knapp Street in Campustown, tucked between rental houses, sororities and apartment buildings.

"The alcohol culture for young people is a kind of ugly culture," said Kupfer, an associate professor of English at ISU. She said the problem isn't underage drinking - it's alcohol abuse.

"The problem is vandalism, drunken driving, the problem is public urination - which doesn't sound like a problem but makes for some very unhygienic places - and date rape. Those are huge problems and they're a result of abuse of alcohol."

Kupfer and Ames City Council member Dan Rice said denying 19- and 20-year-olds the legal right to drink has infantilized their students' relationship to alcohol. Rice, an academic adviser at ISU, said drinkers find their way around ordinances and make it their mission to subvert the law.

On patrol, Metcalfe and Huff responded to a report of an 18-year-old man passed out in front of an apartment building. He was incoherent, so intoxicated that paramedics had to strap him on to a gurney to load him in the ambulance.

Although only a small percentage of people cause the problems, Huff says, it's the young adults - inexperienced drinkers like this man - who can wind up killing themselves.

"I think if a lot of parents saw what we see every night they would be shocked," Huff said.