Clean up tailgating, or risk potential administrative intervention. That’s the message student leaders are sending to undergraduates in advance of Saturday’s Homecoming game against The Citadel.
Duke Student Government President Pasha Majdi and Interfraternity Council President Will Connolly are spearheading a last-minute effort to encourage more responsible tailgating. A coalition of campus leaders met with administrators and Athletic Department officials Thursday night to discuss concerns about last weekend’s tailgate and reached agreements about the necessary changes. The initiative comes as athletics works to boost lagging student attendance at football games.
“I was very, very impressed with the fact that in a short amount of time they were able to get that much student leadership in one spot,” said Jon Jackson, assistant director of athletics for communication and media relations. He added that all parties left the meeting satisfied with the plan to address safety concerns at the tailgates.
As part of their effort to inform students that unsafe activities such as excessive drinking will come under closer scrutiny, student leaders drafted an e-mail to the entire undergraduate body explaining the reasons that behavior needs to improve.
“We want to make this a sustainable tradition,” Connolly said. “We want students to take action so the administration doesn’t get involved.”
The student leaders said they have requested an increase in the presence of Duke Emergency Medical Services and greater numbers of trash cans and portable toilets in the back of the Blue Zone, where student tailgating takes place. They are also asking students to refrain from bringing hard liquor to the tailgate.
“The consequence is that if we don’t make [tailgating] safer, it’s going to shut down—it has to be,” Majdi said.
An increased number of officers from the Duke University Police Department will be present on the periphery of the student tailgating area, Majdi added.
He stressed that student affairs officials said they want tailgating to continue as a spontaneous student-initiated event.
“It’s a very delicate issue in that they want to let us have our fun, but they also know they are responsible for our safety,” Majdi said, noting that changing the tailgating culture would take time.
In several meetings with student affairs officials, the Athletic Department has emphasized the importance of tailgating in its efforts to bolster student attendance and support. During last week’s game against Maryland, about 1,000 students attended the main student tailgate. Many remained outside the stadium at the game’s start, but Athletic Department officials said they were pleased with the attendance, especially in the second quarter when the Blue Devils took the lead.
Athletics estimates that 3,000 students were among the 16,298 in attendance at the game, but with students moving in and out of the gates, the figure may be artificially inflated.
“It was very noticeable what [the students] were doing for our football team,” head coach Ted Roof said. “They were really helping us. I couldn’t impress the fact of how important they are to us.”
The sports promotions department is not planning to make any changes in its methods of attracting fans, said Bart Smith, the department’s director. Although there were originally plans for the team to participate in Oktoberfest events Friday afternoon, the coaches and players do not plan to appear.
Smith canceled a pep rally planned for the Great Hall last Thursday when very few students came to the event.
Even without any additional publicity this week, Smith said he hopes more students will make their way to the game because of its 2 p.m. start time than were present at last week’s noon kickoff.
“Obviously it gives more people time to get up and get going and do all those types of things,” Smith said. “Hopefully it will improve things.”
Plans for a bluegrass band performance from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. sponsored by the Kappa Alpha Order in conjunction with members of off-campus fraternity Eta Prime were canceled because University administration refused to register the event, student organizers said.
“Right now, the tailgating as it’s organized, is basically spontaneous—it’s not a registered event,” Wasiolek said. “By adding a band, which requires electricity or staging or whatever, the event would therefore need to be registered. Someone would need to be in a position to take responsibility for the event, the event being tailgating—not just one small portion.”
Connolly said he hoped to plan concerts and other activities for upcoming tailgates, but no such events are lined up for Saturday.
Emily Almas contributed to this story.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.