The Ohio Liquor Control Commission is closing Sloopy’s down.The Commission has revoked the County Mayo Corp.’s license to sell and distribute alcohol at Sloopy’s Buckeye Club, 1584 N. High St., effective Oct. 13. In the wake of the Sept. 21 decision of the commission, questions arise as to the role Campus Partners plays in the South Campus area.An Ohio appeals court must decide whether to issue a staying order that would keep Sloopy’s open for another six months. The commission must first decide whether to reconsider its decision before an appeal can be made.The commission heard three violations complaints against Sloopy`s. One complaint, underage drinking, was tossed out, but Wallace E. “Eddie” Edwards, chairman of the commission, said that the seriousness of the other two complaints led to the strong response.On Nov. 6, 1998, Jerome Frantz, a senior engineering major and an employee at the bar, warned students that there was an undercover cop present and they needed to hide their drinks. Amelia Yeater, a sophomore architecture major, ordered and paid for a drink at Sloopy’s on June 3. She was only 18 at the time. She later pleaded guilty to underage drinking and paid a $180 fine.”A lot of underage possession and consumption was going on,” Edwards said. “The place is a magnet for students under 21, and then employees are helping them get away.”Edwards said that Yeater’s statement especially influenced him because, when he asked her why she thought she could buy a drink at the bar, Yeater said that everyone who was underage went to Sloopy’s to get drinks.Yeater said that after being arrested, fined and embarrassed in front of her parents, she had just wanted to tell the truth and get everything over with. She said that it had been wrong for the commission to force her to testify and single her out in such a way.”I was the `lucky` one,” Yeater said.Edwards said that the commission has closed down a higher-than-usual amount of campus bars around the state because underage drinking on campuses has been so prevalent. He mentioned closings of bars in Akron and Dayton, and he said that no single college campus has been targeted. “No one from Ohio State University has ever come and testified in the eight years I have been here,” Edwards said. However, he later reconsidered. “People from Campus Partners may have testified at some point,” Edwards said.Twenty-four agents of the Ohio Highway Patrol investigate complaints of liquor violations in a 29-county district, including Columbus. Questions were raised when A. Ronald Lewis, assistant agent for the district, mentioned that part of the community service of the agent-in-charge above him was serving on a Campus Partners’ committee.Steven Hasseman, the agent-in-charge, said that his involvement in the Campus Partners’ Safety Committee stems purely from his desire protect student’s safety.”Typically, at the meetings I attend, they’re always talking about graffiti and they’re always talking about burglaries,” Hasseman said. “When they talk about alcohol, it always reverts back to 12th Avenue, and not even the bars. Uniformed officers, that’s where I get my complaints.”He said that, in Franklin County alone, his investigators can handle up to 150 cases on any given day, but he said that he has a right to be on the committee since he is in charge of a safety issue such as alcohol.”That’s my job, the welfare of that area as well as the welfare of the state of Ohio,” Hasseman said.James J. Andrioff, lawyer for Ed Gaughan, president of the County Mayo Corp., claims conspiracy, however.”If they say they never discussed alcohol in any of their Campus Partners’ meetings, it makes me laugh,” Andrioff said. “Campus Partners has testified in some of our hearings (in the past).”Andrioff said that he hopes the commission decides to reconsider so that Gaughan, who wasn’t able to attend the original hearing, can defend himself. However, Andrioff also said the high number of South Campus bars closed suggests a pattern. “There’s something in common about all of these bars,” he said.Andrioff said that the outcome of the case is unpredictable, but if the staying order is denied, another small South Campus bar will be unable to survive a long staying order without the income from alcohol sales.”You don’t have the money to fight such a big establishment,” Andrioff said.William J. Courson, director of community development for Campus Partners, said that he hadn’t even heard that Sloopy’s was being closed until Wednesday.Stephen A. Sterrett, spokesman for Campus Partners, said that an out-of-control environment has closed South Campus bars down, not Campus Partners. When asked why Campus Partners doesn’t influence students to drink moderately rather than pushing students to abstain, Sterrett said that Campus Partners cannot pursue a policy where students are drinking underage and breaking the law.”I’m really surprised that students haven’t organized to change the law,” Sterrett said.