Improving the tailgating experience for the upcoming football season has been high on the work list for ASMSU this summer, said Julielyn Gibbons, director of legislative affairs.
It's a priority Stephanie Yuhasz, a nursing senior, said she thinks needs attention.
"If you were here two years ago, you could just walk around campus, and it was so much fun," Yuhasz said.
The elimination of the tailgating area near the rock on Farm Lane, where a lot of the fraternities and sororities gathered, was the biggest loss, she said, adding that she hopes ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, can bring it back.
"I'm not in a sorority, but I have a lot of friends who are," she said. "There was music at the rock (that) would get you really pumped up for games. I feel like our school isn't as unified and excited about games (as we used to be)."
Increasing the numbers of students, student organizations and greeks that tailgate has been a goal Gibbons and other ASMSU members have been working toward, Gibbons said.
"I'm really making a visible effort to include the greeks back into the tailgate area," she said. "There is no reason we can't all tailgate together."
Gibbons said that she has been working on incorporating greeks into the student area at the tennis courts, and she is not sure whether or not there will be tailgating at the rock this fall.
In order to make participating in tailgating easy, ASMSU has moved the location of where it sells passes, formerly on the north side of campus, to IM Sports-West for easier access. Tailgate passes will go on sale the Friday before the game with extended sale hours from noon to 6 p.m.
Each tailgate pass will still cost $15, but Gibbons said the option for season tailgate passes is being explored as well.
"We want to be able to say we have served a wider group of students," she said. "(It's) the constant criticism, and it's a fair criticism that we are not visible enough."
Last year's tailgating experience was a disappointment in comparison to previous years, said Matt Mykytiak, an accounting senior.
"The tennis courts used to be more diversified, but a lot of it got taken away (and) people stopped coming," Mykytiak said. "It doesn't even feel like there's a game on campus."
Mykytiak said many of the groups that used to tailgate simply moved to an off-campus location. Bringing the greeks back to tailgating is a great effort for ASMSU to work toward, he said, adding that the area near the rock is one of the best parts of tailgating.
Yuhasz is looking forward to football season, but said she is glad some things are changing.
"I feel like if they gave the students a little more respect … then I feel like they'd be pleasantly surprised that we aren't all idiots."
