After being the only business mentioned by name in the updated Fraternity Sorority Life (FSL) dry recruitment guidelines, Bombay Bicycle Club reached out to Trinity for clarity on why they were brought up and left with plans for a future collaboration with the university. Satchie Seidlits, principal owner of the Bombay Hemisfair location and class of ‘11, said that in the past few weeks, the restaurant and bar has seen a decline in Trinity student turnout at not just “Thursbays,” but overall. However, neither the university nor Bombays are barring students from attending; now, the university might be collaborating with them.

Seidlits heard from Trinity students that they were worried about coming to the bar, as they feared they’d break the dry recruitment policy by having alcohol with their friends. She said that, as big supporters of the university, it’s unfortunate to see people who regularly attend the bar feel scared to do so in light of the policy change. Bombays and Trinity students have a shared history spanning over 50 years, according to the owner and operator of Bombays, Bill Leighton, class of ‘75.

Leighton said he was honored that his alma mater singled Bombays out and was shocked that students weren’t flocking to the bar in protest. While Leighton recognized the situation was somewhat humorous, he said that a clarification from Trinity would be helpful. Seidlits wanted Trinity and its students to know that the bar is a safe place to gather with your friends, and that students of all ages are welcome when the restaurant is in operation.

The new dry recruitment policy highlights safety, and Edward Garcia, area general manager of Bombays, said they are committed to this message. Garcia said that the bar has three security guards on staff every night, along with trained bartenders and supervisors. Bombays does not allow underage drinking in accordance with state laws and will confiscate fake IDs. Due to their training and safety procedures, Garcia said he would even argue that Bombays is one of the safest places students can drink on St. Mary’s strip.

“They’re a lot safer here than they are hanging out with a bunch of Bengal Lancers, I can tell you that,” Leighton said.

While Garcia said that this comment on the Lancers was an anecdotal point, it’s safer to drink under the supervision of trained professionals. Zachary Dycus, senior art history major and president of the Bengal Lancers, said that Bill Leighton is an honorary Bengal Lancer. While he said he didn’t appreciate Garcia bringing them up in this manner, he and the fraternity are honored that Bombays has let them hang out there for decades.

“I would say that a bar is a very safe place to go drink, and that Bays is no exception to that,” Dycus said.

Dycus said that the fraternity has been hosting recurring recruitment events at the bar for the past three years, and in accordance with the new dry recruitment policy, he has now had to instruct actives not to drink any alcoholic beverages at these events. He speculated that the new policy may impact sales at Bombays, and said he feels as though it is a disservice to the bar, considering the long-standing alliance between Bombays and Trinity students.

In an email statement to the Trinitonian, Associate Dean of Students Benjamin Williams wrote that the FSL recruitment guidelines mentioned Bombays in direct response to student questions. As long as active FSL members are not meeting a potential new member for the purposes of recruitment or providing alcohol to underage students, Williams said that students are welcome to continue going to Bombays.

“[The FSL dry recruitment policy is] not prohibiting anyone from attending the bar outside of any limitations already existing based on the laws on consumption of alcohol being limited to those over the age of 21,” Williams wrote. “In fact, we are deeply appreciative of Bombay’s expression of support to Dean Edonick on the role we all play in education and support of safe and legal consumption of alcohol.”

Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jessica Edonick said she spoke with Garcia about the recruitment guidelines after the bar reached out for clarification. Edonick said that they made plans during this conversation to form a partnership between Bombays and Trinity.

“We even talked about hosting educational events there that are non-alcoholic, where we could teach students about healthy behaviors, even some harm reduction pieces,” Edonick said.

Edonick gave examples of what this possible future partnership may look like, such as Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission training, which certifies individuals to responsibly serve alcohol in Texas. Edonick also said harm reduction could be a part of this collaboration, teaching students about alcohol poisoning and the danger of mixing alcohol with other substances. These educational events would be open to students under and over drinking age.

Garcia said that the bar staff was happy to host anything Trinity wants to promote. He said that the bar is currently promoting rideshare options and non-alcoholic drinks. On top of this, when the restaurant is in operation, he said that students of all ages can utilize Bombays as a social hub. With updates to the billiards area, such as poker, board games, pool, dart boards and a new punching bag machine, Garcia said he hopes to see more students coming in.

“We’re also talking about potentially doing a bus transport between Trinity, [University of the Incarnate Word] and each of the locations. So we can transport them from St. Mary’s to Hemisfair and back to a meetup spot at Trinity and UIW,” Garcia said. “That will be kind of like a pub crawl, but we’re gonna push the non-alcoholic options at both locations as well.”

Garcia said that this potential pub crawl would be open to students under the age of 21 as well, due to their promotion of non-alcoholic drinks. Edonick and Garcia said that this partnership is still in the works, and nothing has been put into action as of yet. Garcia, Edonick and Williams all noted that students of age are still welcome to go to the bar, and all students can attend the restaurant before 9 p.m. However, students are expected to be in accordance with Trinity policy and state laws. Williams said that the university is appreciative of the work Bombays does to create safe spaces, and that this policy update should not affect this longstanding relationship.