A blizzard hit the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the spring of 2007. For two days, in the middle of midterms, for the first time in years—classes were cancelled.

But the bars on campus raged on.

Former student Luis Caballero recalls the unexpected two-day break as one of his favorite college memories. Rather than using the educationally-vacant days to bundle up in blankets, drink tea and study for postponed exams, students chose to face the fierceness of the storm and celebrate cancelled classes.

“On the first night, after the bars closed, we had an all out snowball fight against the people who were leaving (a nearby bar). It went on for about 20 minutes before the cops showed up and everyone ran off,” said a reminiscent Caballero.

The relationship between alcohol and collegiate life is certainly an interesting one; comparable to the relationship between Whitney and Bobby—they have fun times, they are unpredictable, they are somewhat abusive—but ultimately, they are always together.

Obviously this relationship flourishes more or less depending on availability. While some university officials believe that having bars on-campus helps to minimize drunk-driving and make drinking less of a novelty (the “if the kids are going to do it, I’d rather have them do it at home” mentality), those who choose not to have bars on campus believe it advocates alcohol consumption and raises multiple liability concerns.

At the University of Illinois, the nation’s 16th ranked party school this year, students can choose from nearly a dozen on-campus locations—pubs, clubs and dives. For Caballero and his friends, these bars represented sociability and convenience, a place to party on weekends, sing karaoke during the week or play cards over a beer between classes.

“The bars really helped my social life, and I can say with full confidence that college wouldn’t have been half as much fun as it was if it weren’t for the bar scene,” he said. “It was about spending time with friends and bonding over the common issues college students face.”

Sergeant Scott Friedlein of the Champaign, Illinois police has been in charge of the Alcohol Enforcement Unit since 1995. He’s spent time on and around the campus and, according to him, DUIs are less of an issue at U. of Illinois, even though alcohol abuse is still prevalent. Said Friedlein, “One benefit is that it does reduce DUIs if compared to schools where bars are detached.”

DUIs aren’t a big issue at UC Berkeley’s Bear’s Lair Brewpub either. Located on campus, the pub is a place for students to exercise and display their Berkeley spirit. The environment is lively, especially when students gather for Bear sporting events. During football season, the bar hosts a “tailgater,” and on an average game day, over 5,000 patrons visit the bar before, during and after the game.

But the bar doesn’t strictly adhere to the sporting interests of the university population. The students are passionate about political events, social causes, fundraisers, and cultural events. According to manager J.D. Guptill, the most recent highlight was November 4, which he describes as “a wild and fun night, with everyone celebrating Barack’s victory.”

On another University of California campus, in Irvine, the bar scene is not quite as raucous. Cristina Saavedra, a UCI student, describes the atmosphere as follows:

“Well, we don’t have a football team, and I don’t even know the words to our fight song. But at the bar, students can down beers before their afternoon classes. Grad students hang out there…I went into the pub once to turn in a paper to a grad student who was in there with a bigger group of grad students. My point, the pub is a Petri dish, breeding graduate thoughts. The bar’s slogan should be: let’s go grad a beer sometime.”

The bar, called the Anteater Pub and Grille, was re-opened in 2007 after being closed for over 2 years due to campus expansion and renovation. Students were excited by the bar’s resurgence, but not necessarily because they were ready to party again. Instead they were ready to have a place to meet up, socialize and talk. Oh, and drink beer.

Some schools choose not to mess with bars at all. Southern Methodist University considered and then denied establishing a pub on campus. As part of their “Live Responsibly” campaign, a task force proposed that an on-campus pub could teach students how to drink responsibly. That plan was ultimately denied by the president of the university.

“In a nut shell, he didn’t think that was going to help in our efforts to educate about substance abuse,” said Kent Best, an SMU employee.

From these examples, it’s evident that a bar can mean one thing on one campus and an entirely different thing on another campus.

Whether students are partying, socializing, studying, playing pool or avoiding storms, on-campus bars do seem to foster one thing for certain: community. Of course community on a university campus exists in many other ways, but fostering that feeling is so easy to do with an ice cold pitcher of a delicious mircrobrew.