With administrators considering a proposal to loosen the University's policies for serving alcohol at school-sponsored events, the annual Springfest music festival this weekend looms as a test of how far the administration will go to ease the current restrictions.Student Union officials drafted the proposal in February after complaining for over a year that the current policy makes alcohol too costly and difficult to serve at campus parties, hindering campus social life.

The draft proposal called for allowing underage students into beer gardens; scaling back requirements for security personnel at events; allowing students to check IDs and serve alcohol; and shifting oversight responsibility from the administration to students at such events.

The state of negotiations over the proposal remains unclear. One of the most significant proposed changes, which called for permitting student groups to buy alcohol from vendors other than Aramark in order to lower the cost of purchasing alcohol, has already been dismissed because of contractual obligations with Aramark.

But Springfest, an afternoon of musical performances on the Great Lawn Saturday, will be used as a testing ground for another significant proposed change. Students over 21 who are drinking will not be separated from their underage peers at the festival, a change from the University's 2005 requirement for "beer gardens" at campus parties, according to Union and administration officials.

All beer served at Springfest will still be enclosed on the Great Lawn-to keep with the requirements of state law-but minors will have X's drawn on their hands and students over 21 will wear wristbands.

Administrators' opinion of Springfest could go a long way in determining how flexible they will be in reforming the current policy.

"This event will be monitored very closely and we will be prepared to take

swift action should any issues arise out of my decision to not use a beer garden for this even[t]," Mark Collins, the vice president for campus operations, wrote in an e-mail. "Hopefully, that will not be the case."

Any change in the University's alcohol policy must be approved by both Collins and the Waltham License Commission. Collins said in an e-mail Sunday that he applauded the Union's efforts and promised to continue working with student officials, but he did not say whether he would approve other aspects of the proposal and implied that cost-cutting would be difficult.

Wayne Brasco, the chairman of the city's Board of License Commissioners, expressed strong disapproval at the idea of students running events that offer alcohol.

"Students cannot take over control of alcohol on campus under any circumstances, under any conditions," Brasco said in a phone interview. But he said he has no objection to allowing underage students into beer gardens.

If the University approved such changes as letting everybody in the beer garden in a way that could assure public safety, Brasco said he did not foresee the License Commission objecting. A daily permit is required by law, he added, for any event with alcohol held in an unlicensed location. The only licensed locations on campus are The Stein, Usdan Student Center and The Faculty Club.

Union President Alison Schwartzbaum '08, who has focused on improving social life throughout her term, acknowledged the importance of holding Springfest without complications. In an effort to avoid the medical transports that have made administrators so uneasy with alcohol on campus, Schwartzbaum called for "zero" underage drinkers at the event.

"The student body needs to gain the trust from the University back," Schwartzbaum said.

Administrators seem to have gradually lost confidence in students over the last few years. They cancelled ModFest two times, starting in the fall of 2004, before shelving the event indefinitely last spring.

When administrators drafted a new alcohol policy in late 2005, it stipulated that student groups planning an event with alcohol must send members who are over 21 to attend a "One-Stop" event-planning meeting to discuss with Dining Services staffers the details concerning alcohol at the event.

The policy also stated that alcohol must be provided and served by Dining Services inside a beer garden erected at least 20 feet from the event. In addition, at least one bartender and one person checking students' identifications had to be present for every 75 students of drinking age expected to attend.

This policy outraged Union officials, who said that they had not been consulted, and set off an effort to reform the policy that has spanned two Union administrations.

At her State of the Union address in December, Schwartzbaum acknowledged that Purple Rain-a party her administration spent the fall semester planning as a alternative to ModFest-had been thrown, in part, to demonstrate the impracticality of current practices.

"It's time we start normalizing alcohol," the Union's spokesman, Brian Paternostro '07, told the Justice in February after disclosure of the Union's draft proposal. "It's not scary, it's just beer.