At the Cultuurcafé, you cannot get alcohol until 15.30 - it has been like that for years. It also is not new that the student council is trying to convince the university to do something about this. This Monday, students are trying again. They will ask the Executive Board some questions about this: 'We are allowed to vote, but we cannot choose when we have a beer.'

Timo Bakrim, who is in the council on behalf of the student associations, is going to ask university management to take a new look at the rule. He calls it ‘patronising’ that students are not allowed to choose for themselves when to drink beer. ‘When I finish a tough exam in Summer, and I want to have a beer with my classmates, I have to go to the city centre. The university wants to create a new ‘heart of the campus’ with all kinds of reconstructions, that makes it even more unfortunate to have to leave campus if you want a drink in the afternoon.’

Bakrim (and along with him, the student council) thinks students are smart enough to handle a more flexible alcohol policy. ‘We are all grown-ups here. We can vote during the governmental elections and we have to choose what university to go to – one of the most important choices of your life – but we cannot choose when to drink a beer. I think that’s absurd.’ Bakrim wants an easing of the ‘no beer before four’ rule. ‘Make that 13.00. Or 14.00…’

‘We are all grown-ups here’

Focal point
It is definitely not the first time that this topic is on the university’s political agenda. When the cafe opened, in 1996, the Executive Board feared that students would start drinking before they had to go to class. To prevent that from happening, a time lock was put on the beer taps. Before four, the cafe could not serve beer. This topic immediately became important for the student factions. Student’01 even made it its focal point and launched the slogan ‘beer before four’. Later, the time changed to 15.30.

In 2012, the university discussed the rule for the last time until now. Then, the board spoke the not-very-encouraging words: ‘There will be no beer before 15.30. Nothing will change there. If we change anything about this, it will be that the bar opens even later, not earlier.’ One ray of light for the student council: the members of the board at that time have all left by now.