Daily Trojan USC.edu

Issue date: 3/7/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Sugarman | Daily Trojan Traditions end | Students gather at Traditions bar in downstairs Commons Tuesday evening. Six student bartenders who were fixtures at the campus watering hole were fired by TrojanHospitality. The reason for their firing is still unclear.

Regulars at Traditions will no longer see familiar faces serving their favorite drinks.

Six employees from Traditions were fired last week over two days, said Mike Huang, a Traddies bartender of four years and a senior majoring in cinema-television critical studies. Only one original bartender retained her job, Huang said.

Though TrojanHospitality officials cited an ongoing audit as a reason for the replacement of student workers with professional staff, Alain Yaacoub, a senior manager of dining services and Commons who Huang said fired the students, indicated in an e-mail exchange that the layoffs were instigated by unsatisfactory operation and oversight.

"I like to be proud of my bar and currently I am not," he wrote in the e-mail addressed to Huang.

Yaacoub cited problems with staff selling T-shirts without permission to use university logos. He wrote the shirts were being sold without sales tax and sales were logged as tips on credit card transactions.

"The illegal activity that happened in the past is raising a lot of questions among the management," Yaacoub wrote. "The T-shirts issue was a big thing, and all of you were lucky that it ended this way."

Yaacoub also referenced the bar's subpar sanitary conditions.

"The cleanliness of this bar is very bad, and it is causing us to have roaches behind that line," Yaacoub wrote.

Yaacoub added that he was disappointed with how the bartenders were managing their inventory.

"The sales that we are having in the bar can theoretically use half the liquor that is actually and currently being used," he wrote.

But Huang said he believes placing such high expectations on income versus inventory is unrealistic.

"In any bar in the country, the inventory will never equal the amount of sales," Huang said. "By replacing students, they're saving money, but they're losing the cultural college experience."

Mark Ewalt, executive director of operations for TrojanServices, said one of the goals of the two-year audit is to increase the operational efficiency of the department; TrojanHospitality would work with human resources and hotel and bar managers in the area to develop a "firmer commitment to training and support of student workers."

Ewalt said he and TrojanHospitality are not against using student bartenders.

Ewalt added that the student bartenders no longer work at Traditions, but declined to comment on whether the employees were fired or quit.

The current management system at Traditions is not built to train, accommodate the schedules of or hold accountable student bartenders, and as a result TrojanHospitality is "pulling the student-bartender function offline for a while," Ewalt said.

Ewalt said the Traditions management structure lacks a system with staff that can back up workers who miss shifts because of academic conflicts such as midterms.

"When you're without the bartender, you're up the creek (without a paddle)," he said.

Huang said Yaacoub also told him that employing underage students to work in a bar violated California's Alcoholic Beverage Control Act.

According to Section 25663, those who employ students in a business serving alcohol face misdemeanor charges if a minor is used to sell and serve alcohol.

Huang said, however, that minors did not sell alcohol. He cited Section 25667, which states minors may work in a facility that serves alcohol, as long as they are not bartenders.

Ewalt said TrojanHospitality holds the USC liquor license and the organization has to be very conservative in protecting the license for the university but he declined to say whether the students' actions involving alcohol service affected the decision.

"The liquor license applies to all of USC," Huang said. "For example, in Upstairs Commons - where they serve alcohol - you're allowed to work there if you're not 21. All of a sudden, they interpret it differently."

Huang said he and his co-workers fall within the same boundaries of students who work at Upstairs Commons, which serves cocktails.

Will McGraw, a former barback for Traditions and a junior majoring in international relations, said the decision came out of the blue.

"I've been told (the license) served for all of Commons," he said. "In the past it was never an issue."

By Friday, three more employees were fired, including Huang. Alexis Sutcliffe, a senior majoring in art history, said she decided to quit after she was not fired. Huang and his fellow co-workers said the only reason they have been given for their extermination is because they are students.

"I have no idea why," said bartender Nathaniel Corwin, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering. "The only reason we were given is that they didn't want student bartenders anymore."

Ewalt said Traditions has hired two temporary bartenders and will hire full-time staff.

Huang said Yaacoub hired another employee two weeks ago and scheduled her most of the hours.

"I think he was trying to influence the ways we do things without firing us," he said.

Huang said no offer has been made to rehire the students and the future role of students in the bar is unclear.

Some students say the atmosphere will never be the same.

"I feel like I lost my friends," said Taylor Adams, a senior majoring in business administration and a regular for three years at Traditions. "It's for the students and run by students. They robbed us of it."

Ewalt said he is unsure how the change will impact the atmosphere of Traditions; but when all is said and done, he thinks the changes will be a "win-win" for the community.

Some regulars are even going the extra mile to prove their loyalty to the bar. Katie Bowman, a senior majoring in social sciences, said she and other regulars will boycott Traditions by sitting in front the bar on March 20 and refusing to spend their money there.

"Don't expect us to give you money when you don't give (the bartenders) money," she said.

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News Editor Torey Van Oot contributed to this report.

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