Students can expect continuing bar raids with phase two of Project 21 beginning this fall.

At a meeting yesterday, Mayor Dan Cougill, members of student government, a representative from the Secretary of State Jesse White’s Office, three members of the Project 21 committee and Charleston residents met to kick off phase two of the project.

While phase one of the project focused on bar raids, phase two will focus more on educating bar owners on minors using fake IDs and having underage drinking literature while still raiding bars, just not at last year’s scale, said Marty Ruhaak, student vice president for public affairs.

“The gist of it was that phase one won’t be used as often, but it will be used,” he said.

Although those punished by Project 21’s raids are minors, Ruhaak said phase two is educating bar owners and employees rather than the minor students.

He felt that the emphasis was more on busting underage drinking when they see it, rather than stopping it before it happens.

“It sounded almost anti-student,” he said. “There was no talk of coming on campus to talk to students.

“They mean business.”

Presenters said most binge drinking occurs on college campuses and the project is working in 55 cities in Illinois, although they did not elaborate if they were raiding bars in all 55 locations, Ruhaak said.

However, Ruhaak said during elections last semester that he thought the project should be expanded beyond college towns.