The Brown Student Association and the Student Activities Office, in conjunction with the Rhode Island School of Bartending, are now offering bartending courses on campus. The course, a two-day program held in the Underground, was offered this past weekend and will be offered again in November, said Steven Chizen ’14, a BSA project manager and former Herald opinions columnist.
Students learn the basics of bar inventory, customer service and alcoholic beverage proportions by reading the Training for Intervention Procedures manual and obtaining hands-on experience at the bar. After completing the course, each person is issued a TIPS, the nationally recognized bartending certification. Those who have completed the course are also eligible to work at campus parties and bars.
“I’ve always been interested in taking a bartending course, but they’ve always been too expensive or badly timed,” wrote Anna Johantgen ’14, in an email to The Herald. “When I found out Brown was subsidizing this, I was excited to sign up — especially since Brown is planning on hiring us for on-campus events.”
Skills taught in the courses include recognizing the amount of alcohol in a Solo cup as compared to a glass cup and using bartending equipment to measure a shot, said Connor Shinn ’14, executive director of BSA.
“We are trying to spread awareness of drunkenness,” Chizen said. “The idea is if Brown students have that knowledge, they will know how to recognize other intoxicated students.”
The course curriculum is based on that of the Rhode Island School of Bartending but is geared more towards Brown students. “It is more focused on the type of situation that Brown students would be put in if they were to be bartending on campus,” Shinn said.
There was “very limited advertising” for this class, but the response was “overwhelming,” he said.
Both seven-hour sessions are limited to 14 people and cost $100 per participant, Chizen said, adding that students are only allowed to attend one of the two sessions.
“The waitlist has 25 people on it,” Chizen said. “Assuming the demand stays high, we’re likely to pull four or five more classes next semester.”
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