Recently, the Catholic University of Leuven, Flanders-Belgium, ran a page wide ad in the international magazine “The Economist” to recruit students for its MBA program. The ad points out, among other things of course, “a university town full of medieval splendor, gastronomy and superior ales”.

This shows a grown up attitude in Belgium towards beer, that is quite contrasting with the actual attitude of US-universities. It used to be that students protested and organized rallies for political or social reasons. Remember the sixties and the seventies? Today in the USA, the university students (Michigan i.e.) have to rally for their basic right to drink a beer. It certainly keeps their energy and attention away from fundamental and more important political and social questions.
Newsletter October 1998

Statue of "Fonske", the drinking student,
in Leuven. Book & Beer:
two wonders to enlighten the mind.