In an effort to regulate campus-wide tailgating into a responsible, "healthy, family atmosphere," MSU officials have decided to focus on the Wilson tennis courts. And not much else.
MSU tailgate as you might know it is officially over. Parking lots will be closed until five hours before the game, regardless of kickoff time. Drinking game "structures" and "paraphernalia" - a Drink-O board? A table? A deck of cards? - are now banned for the remainder of the football season. The irresponsibility that some associate with tailgate drinking has been deemed a greater compromise to university integrity and public relations than overall tailgate safety. Water stations, larger thoroughfares for pedestrians, first-aid and increased security presence are the solutions to the problem that MSU officials aren't answering.
Most problems caused by those who are intoxicated and tailgating would be greatly reduced by adding those measures. More toilets mean less public urination and more water and food cuts down on dehydration. More space devoted to foot traffic results in greater emergency response time and more police and emergency officials mean more enforcement to the rules. Concerns that underage students are getting drunk on campus is not even addressed in these changes. Adding to the tailgate is the answer. Restricting it does little.
Furthermore, penalties for those who disobey the new restrictions on tailgate have not been clearly defined. Simply, punishments for violators will have to fit the crime, no more or no less. Could the Drink-O board be confiscated, could the owners be somehow ticketed or will all participants involved spend the game in the drunk tank? We don't know. Letting students know their punishment on the advent of the corrective action is a fine way to encourage students to distrust the rule-makers and cull favorable student sentiment.
In short, eliminating the creature comforts of drinking games will not be a solution to a greater problem. People have always been perfectly capable of drinking to get drunk without spinning a wheel or tossing a table tennis ball into a plastic cup. The truly determined, or the truly irresponsible, can become intoxicated within a half hour.
Not many would have a problem with changes such as adding water or banning glass. Most students would say that they preferred knowing they would be safer at tailgate. The fix to whatever it is that the university fears is by addressing actual problems that all tailgaters face. Eliminating flip cup is not a savvy method of reducing sexual assault or public urination. Reactionary methods can expect to fail when preventative measures should have been taken long ago in the first place.
If MSU administrators wish to pull the plug on the Wilson tennis courts, they wouldn't. And in fact, we're sure that the university is in favor of the preventative measures as well as their reactionary ones. We even commend MSU officials for bringing together student groups, East Lansing brass, alumni, donors and a host of others for input. However, we feel they've missed the real threat to tailgate. Unanswered questions, thy name is new tailgate restrictions.
