The two biggest universities in the state have two very different cultures when it comes to drinking.

Iowa is often ranked within the top 10 party schools in the country, and Iowa City has a reputation for being a binge drinking town.

“There’s a variety of different people, and they each do different things,” said Leah Hawbaker, senior in communications at Iowa. “Some people binge everything, not just alcohol.”

One reason for the association between Iowa City and alcohol is the fact that certain bars allow people 19 and older into the bars, which leads to more people getting in and more difficulty trying to find underage people consuming alcohol.

“The way that law works is an establishment has to have enough entertainment options besides alcohol to be able to let 19-year-olds in,” said Brian Wiese, employee at Quinton’s Bar & Deli in Iowa City.

Not only that, but the police often take other measures to ensure that the law is being upheld and underage persons are not consuming alcohol. Iowa City Police have been known to run sting operations to try to catch bars that are lax in observing to whom they serve alcohol.

“The last one they ran, they got around five bars,” Wiese said. “If a place gets three tickets for serving a minor in a set amount of time, they lose their license.”

Iowa City publishes a list of all the reports of possession of alcohol under legal age on its Web site. It recorded that in 2007, 1,000 people were cited for underage drinking, and 879 were in 2008. So far, 208 people have been cited just this year, with statistics for March still being tabulated.

During Veishea weekend, one of Iowa State’s busiest drinking times of the year, Ames’ numbers come close to Iowa City’s rates of PAULA and public intoxications.

Ames, while requiring all bar patrons to be 21, has a much larger house party scene than Iowa City does, which many Iowa City residents are just fine with.

“That’s mostly what we get, loud party calls,” said Ames Police officer Mike Arkovich. Arkovich and his partner, Blake Marshall, are members of the Party Response Unit, and see firsthand a lot of house parties, although they also patrol Welch Avenue.

“We pull our fair share of minors out of bars,” Marshall said.

Both officers responded negatively to Iowa City’s system of allowing 19 and 20-year-olds into the bars.

“I hate it, that’s just inviting problems to happen,” Arkovich said. “It would be nearly impossible to enforce, and I’m not buying the argument for allowing them into the bars.”

Ames tried the 19 and older system for one year, in 1989. After the trial, the City Council, including current Mayor Ann Campbell, decided to restore the old laws. The age limit has remained 21 since.

Geoff Huff, lieutenant with the Ames Police, was the night shift lieutenant for the last two years, and said that the major difference between the two drinking locales is a set of rules.

“Each party depends on the host, but usually there are few regulations in place at house parties, as well as concerns about drink spiking and the strength of the alcohol,” he said.

“It can be very unsafe.”

When asked for her thoughts on the differences between the two cities, Hawbaker took a detached view.

“I visit Ames a lot, and it’s a different vibe,” she said. “People there stay to themselves a lot more often, while people in Iowa City are more open about everything.”

Many of the Iowa State students and bar patrons declined to be interviewed about their drinking habits for this story.

Haley Van Soelen, junior in psychology at Iowa, said that the definition of one who binge drinks doesn’t necessarily reflect the motives of college students today.

“Strictly according to the definition, a binge drinker is someone who has five drinks in five hours,” she said. “Everyone does that, if not more.”