Editor’s Note: This article has been updated from its original version, which reported that both Uptown and Downtown required college IDs. This has been corrected in the current version.
A BG1 Card can be used many places around campus and even some off-campus business, but it can have a another use: getting students into bars downtown.
In the past, students only had to present their college IDs at a club or bar to get discounted beverages or a discounted cover charge. Since the first weekend of the academic year in September 2015, a college ID has been required to enter Uptown, a nightclub downtown. A University ID is not required to enter Downtown, the bar paired with Uptown.
In a review on Uptown Downtown’s Facebook page, dated Sept. 6, 2015, former customer Jodi Doss gave the business a one star rating and wrote a complaint under it.
“We did love this bar, but now they won’t let you in without a college ID, which is fine,” she said. “But I graduated and they still wouldn’t let me in!”
Andy Gibson, a manager at Uptown and Downtown, said that University IDs are required to enter Uptown but not to enter Downtown.
“We are trying to provide a college bar for a college town,” he said. “We’re not trying to turn (alumni) away, we’re just trying to provide a unique experience.”
Gibson said that during Homecoming and Family Weekend, Uptown will not require University IDs so that alumni can enter.
The idea of making bars and clubs require college IDs for entrance has also appeared in other college towns.
Miami University in Oxford decided at the start of their academic year in the fall to print birthdates onto students’ college ID cards, according to an article written by The Miami Student.
One of the bars, according to the article, is taking advantage of this change by requiring students to now show two forms of ID in order to compare the birthdates.
While Miami University’s decision to make this change and the bar’s decision to use college IDs were potentially responses to the issues of underage drinking and fake identification among students under the legal age of 21, bars besides Uptown Downtown don’t seem to be following suit.
A Liquid nightclub employee, who asked not to be identified, said management there isn’t enforcing any type of college ID policies.
Liquid, formerly known as Skybar to some alumni, is well known in Bowling Green for its Tiki bar and popular Wednesday industrial rock night, INation, better known to University students as “Goth Night.”
“We’re not enforcing it because not all patrons are students,” the employee said. “More people come from out of town than in town.”
Even while the University’s students were still away on winter break, Liquid on a Saturday night was still filled shoulder to shoulder with people. The dance floor was packed with people the employees say are mostly from Toledo, people who wouldn’t be able to enter a bar requiring University student IDs.
