Dining Halls May Serve Beer, Wine

When Harvard dining halls open next Fall, they will feature pubs selling beer and wine, if the prediction of the chairman of the Cambridge License Commission comes true.

John R. Sennott said Tuesday that the major stumbling block to Harvard's selling beer and wine--the legality of obtaining one permit for all of the University's dining halls--will probably be resolved soon.

Sennott said that state law requires separate licenses, but he added that the License Commission may charge as little as it wants for permits to sell beer and wine.

Harvard officials are presently negotiating with the License Commission, Sennott said, and the "probable outcome will entail such a low fee on each license that the lump sum will not be prohibitive."

Financially Infeasible

Daniel Steiner '54, general counsel to the University, said last month that obtaining a different license for every dining hall could prove financially infeasible.

Lewis A. Armistead, assistant to the vice president for Government and Community Affairs, said Tuesday that his office is handling the negotiations with the License Commission and will be preparing a statement this week on Harvard's tentative plans to sell beer and wine.

Armistead said that W.C. Burriss Young '55, associated dean of Freshmen, is expecting Harvard to open about 15 distribution points.

Young and Steiner are heading a subcommittee of the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life that is investigating the possibility of Harvard's selling beer and wine.

The Union Bar

Nancy B. Abrams '76 said Tuesday that Union officials reacted favorably to suggestions that a pub be set up next Fall in the Union. Abrams said that her role would be that of a manage and not that of a profit maker.

The pub would be a break even project backed by the Union, she added.

Sennott said that any safe of beer and wine through a University license must be carried out by the food services, and that any profits from a student-run business must be turned over to the food services.

A Left Out Detail

Another barrier to Harvard's selling beer and wine is also falling, Kenneth W. Robbins, a research director for the State legislature, said Tuesday. A bill that would permit universities to sell alcoholic beverages to persons 18 or older--a detail left out of the original law changing the drinking age--is waiting for Governor Francis Sargent's signature.