More than 60 percent of MSU students believe it's the university's responsibility to ensure on-campus safety during tailgating, including using alcohol restrictions to do so, according to the 2004 Fall Celebration Survey.

Among the 1,277 MSU undergraduate responses to the online survey, the number of students who drank or got drunk during tailgating was reduced by more than half after restrictions were put in place halfway through last football season.

Temporary restrictions created in October limited tailgating to five hours before and two hours after the game and banned drinking games on campus. The restrictions also led to a lower student attendance.

The MSU Board of Trustees will reconsider these restrictions at a board meeting Thursday.

The survey compared the games against Central Michigan University and Notre Dame to the games against Minnesota and Wisconsin, which both occurred after restrictions were put into place.

It found the number of students who tailgated before most or all of the four games consumed a higher number of drinks per game than those who attended fewer tailgating activities.

The study also looked at students' perceptions of tailgating restrictions.

About 78 percent of the respondents did not favor drinking game bans for tailgating or requiring individuals to register their tailgate with the university prior to the game. But almost half favored limiting tailgating hours, and about 40 percent favored the idea of changing the open-container law to restrict them to designated tailgating areas.

Of those who tailgated, about 45 percent reported participating in at least one drinking game during tailgating.

This study is not only about tailgating rules, but about student drinking behaviors, said Dennis Martell, Olin Health Center Health Education Services coordinator, who was the principal investigator in the survey.

Martell said the survey's administrators worked to ensure the sample of students was balanced by class, age, gender and race.

"There was a huge drop-off of students reporting drinking and getting drunk at tailgating and less students tailgating after the restrictions," he said. "Most students at MSU drink moderately or not at all - there is a small population of dangerous drinkers that we need to target."

The survey was managed by the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research.

The tailgating portion of the survey was added later, after both the administration and ASMSU showed interest in statistics on the effects restrictions had on campus drinking behaviors.

The survey was reviewed by ASMSU on Thursday and could be reviewed by the trustees at the meeting.

"It's a helpful resource for everyone involved in tailgating issue," said Andrew Schepers, ASMSU Student Assembly chairperson. "We're all going to look at this, comb through and analyze it before we make a final decision."

But the results are contradictory in some ways, Schepers said.

"People are against the ban on drinking games, but they believe it's the university's responsibility to ensure safety at tailgating by using restrictions," he said.

He said it is important to see the effect the regulations have during warmer weather games in the 2005 season before drawing conclusions.

Trustee Dee Cook said the board had not received the survey results, but did say statistics are always important to the board's decision.

But statistics are only one of many different factors the board looks at, including the atmosphere and environment on campus, as well as observations from alumni, parents, board members and the administration.

"It's not just numbers, although they do tell an important story of how they correlate to the other factors," Cook said.

The board's main priority remains in the best interest of students' health, Cook said.

"We certainly don't want to lose any kids because of overindulgence," she said.

Tina Reed can be reached at reedtina@msu.edu.

The 2004 Fall Celebration Survey polled 1,277 MSU students about how tailgating restrictions affected their drinking habits at four home games:

Source: 2004 Fall Celebration Survey