Buck passed on prohibition

Students may not be drinking, but fingers are certainly pointing. In the wake of a decision prohibiting the Palladium from serving liquor on the restaurant's well-known and well-frequented terrace, University administrators and staff are pointing fingers as to "whodunit?" "It's frustrating, and no one will take responsibility for this decision," Palladium co-owner Roger Harman said last night. "I think that . . . when you're in any administration there's a tendency to want to shirk from responsibility, and I think that's going on in this case." "I have gone to all of the highest levels that I know of -- the president, the provost, the vice provost for University life, the Board of Trustees, and right on down the line they say, 'This is a matter for the real estate office, we didn't do this,' " Harman added. The Palladium will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol on its Locust Walk terrace, as the restaurant has done since 1986. The Palladium will have a short reprieve from the ban from June to mid-August of this year, during which beer and wine can be served with meals between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Harman said the Palladium has two different leases, leasing the restaurant from the Christian Association and the terrace property from the University. When the Palladium's lease came up for renewal this year, the restaurant was suddenly required to comply with the University's 1989 policy against outdoor alcohol consumption. Harman said he does not know why the University chose this year to enforce the policy. When questioned about the decision earlier in the week, Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrisson acknowledged that her office had been consulted about the matter, but attributed the rapid implementation of the policy to the University's real estate office. "The real estate people, in terms of the contract, were trying to be consistent with University policy as it is applied through the rest of the University," Morrisson said Tuesday night. "We were consulted, as was Public Safety . . . we certainly did not initiate this. We are always concerned about the consistent and the fair application of University policy throughout the University." But Associate Treasurer for Real Estate Christopher Mason, who handled the Palladium's lease, said that the initiative for the action came from, among other sources, Morrisson's office. "We were just the bad guys, the messenger, more than anything," Mason said yesterday. "We didn't, on our own, make that decision." "We pointed out that [the Palladium's lease] was coming up for renewal, spoke to Kim Morrisson and representatives from the Drug and Alcohol Task Force, asked 'What would you like us to do?' and they instructed us," Mason said. Morrisson said last night that the question of the initiative behind the measure is inconsequential. "The issue here is that [the directive against the Palladium] is supported by those who are concerned about the application of the University policy," Morrisson said. She added that anyone who leases property from the University should be in compliance with University policies. University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich also said the University acted against the Palladium in order to be consistent in application of University policy, but later said that different cases call for different measures. "You can't apply across the board the same approach to every area," he said. Harman said he feels that the arbitrary application of the University's policy is, if anything, inconsistent. "To be consistent would be to follow the state's law, and this has nothing to do with state law," Harman added. Harman said he will be meeting with University officials in closed-door meetings this week "to try to clear up what's going on here."