“We’re always trying to make sure that we’re maintaining safety by having enough officers here to assist,” MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.

McGlothian-Taylor said additional staff from the East Lansing Police Department and the Ingham County Sheriff's Department help police game day events.

“We have officers from our department. … We have our Special Events Unit working the game. … But we have additional staff that work the games, because it’s so large there’s no way that we can just work it by ourselves,” McGlothian-Taylor said.

Whether a reaction to a community-uniting, crowd-rousing win, or an attempt to collectively erase a heart-crushing loss from our minds, post-game partying tends to result in a bit of controlled disaster. Tailgating and other community revelries often leave behind a sea of red Solo cups and food wrappers on the banks of the Red Cedar River.

The Morning After 

When the sun rises over the partied-out landscape, it falls on dedicated members of the East Lansing and MSU communities to help restore the area to its perennial beauty. The East Lansing Community Relations Coalition is a group of such individuals.

“We go out here and clean up the community to make it more of like a living space,”  environmental studies and sustainability senior Ryan Martini said. “I think when people take care of the community, it makes them more proud of it. If you live somewhere you’re proud of you’re more inclined to respect the people (there).”

Hosting weekly cleanup sessions, members walk routes around East Lansing and pick up the remains of the previous night’s rituals. The group takes care to separate trash and recyclables, furthering the community from an environmental standpoint while serving to keep it clean.

“I think the (ELCRC) in particular has a tremendously positive impact on the community,” East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett said.

Triplett, who has been serving as mayor since 2013 and who has been involved with East Lansing City Council since 2007, joined the coalition’s efforts for the day following MSU’s showdown with Oregon on Sept. 12. Triplett attends these walks frequently, making an effort to participate every weekend.

Thanks to the @CrcMSU for another season of great neighborhood cleanups! I always enjoy joining you. Go Green! pic.twitter.com/PeGyqaK6eR

— Nathan Triplett (@NathanTriplett) October 26, 2015

“Not just because of these cleanups, but (the ELCRC) do the hard work day-to-day of building positive relationships between permanent residents and student residents under the motto ‘we all live here,'” Triplett said. 

The coalition was first formed in 1999, under suggestion from the Final Report of the (MSU) Alcohol Action Team issued in November, 1998. Aiming to improve communication between MSU students and East Lansing residents, the ELCRC has promoted harmony between the two conjoined communities for more than a decade. The Coalition has been performing post-game trash pickups since fall of 2004, ELCRC Intern Coordinator Leslie Armell said in an email.

"My experience with the CRC has been very educational in terms of the successes and trials of town-gown relations," Armell, a graduate student, said in an email. "I absolutely recommend other students get involved, either as an intern next year (2016-2017) or as a volunteer at our events this academic year."

The Landscape Services Department of Infrastructure Planning and Facilities (IPF) also facilitates on-campus cleanup to help with messes accrued during the game.

“The cleanup has been the responsibility of Landscape Services because it’s just kind of a natural fit for us,” Fred Kester, the Landscape Services Coordinator for IPF, said. “Our gardening crews are in charge of the landscape beds, the shrubs, the perennials, the turf areas and litter is a part of that. For football tailgating, the litter issue becomes predominant.”

Landscape Services, like the ELCRC, organizes a trash pickup effort on Sundays, but also hands out garbage bags to tailgaters on gameday, encouraging students to clean up after themselves and get involved. 

“It makes it a little bit easier to clean up on Sunday,” Kester said.

Kester said IPF deals with any kind of physical work that keeps campus running, such as plumbing, power, custodial, engineering or architectural work. Kester said workers from these other departments of IPF will participate in cleanup efforts to earn overtime work hours.

"We have a group of about 60 (people) who will clean up on Sunday morning," Kester said.

Keeping It Green 

In addition to the efforts of organizations like IPF and the ELCRC, the community in general has stepped up to help clean up after, and during, gameday.

"Yes, there is usually an increase in the amount of trash and recyclables we normally get, but the trash has gone down a great amount," MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center truck driver and Lansing resident Charlie Duffy said. "And yes, the community has helped with that by putting everything in the right bins."

The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center takes in all of MSU's recyclables collected during football games. Duffy said once they have been delivered to the buildings, recycling center students will sort through them and make sure the trash is taken out.

Many individuals attend the tailgates bearing garbage bags, hoping to harvest the multitudes of beer cans and other recyclables strew across campus. Some homeless, some poor, some trying to make some extra cash while cleaning the community — students are often happy to cooperate, helping someone while also keeping cans off the ground.

“I’ll give the beer cans to the homeless (who are collecting them), but if there’s any plastic on the ground, I make a conscious effort to put it in a bin. … It’s like, you have to,” electrical engineering senior Adam Shearouse said.

Shearouse said he thinks people are more conscious of what they’re doing while tailgating, as opposed to other party situations, resulting in a better environment.

“Honestly, I think it’s way less rowdy than it normally is," Shearouse said.

While students like Shearouse may elect to tailgate near the tennis courts on the south side of campus, a more party-oriented area, families like the VanMaele family might elect to set up in calmer areas.

“We’re okay now because our kids are older, but about five years ago it was horrible by the tennis courts," MSU alumna Renee VanMaele said. "But (MSU does) a great job of cleaning up. We leave here and see how trashed it is, and in the morning it’s totally gone."

VanMaele, a member of the class of 1983, also has children attending MSU. VanMaele says she tailgates with her whole family once or twice each season, with individual members tailgating nearly every home game.

“Selective location of your tailgate is key,” VanMaele said, adding that families would be more comfortable if they tailgate near Breslin Center and Munn Ice Arena.

“My youngest (child) is 16, and he came with us (tailgating), and I was a little worried about that, but he was fine," she said. "There’s probably certain areas I wouldn’t take him to, but the people next to us even have little kids, and we were totally fine where we were."

Despite the often pleasantly destructive nature of the celebrations, MSU’s community has stepped up and allowed itself not only to have chaotic fun, but to wake up to a clean, peaceful state of living the next morning.

“Big Ten game days are great,” Triplett said. "But they do create, as you can see, a little bit of a mess, and so having folks from the community, student residents and permanent residents alike, coming out afterwards to help clean things up and get the community back in tip-top shape. I think says a lot about who we are as East Lansing.”