Northwestern administrators will consider an Associated Student Government bill this week that would allow alcoholic tailgates to return to Northwestern football games on a game-by-game basis.
Pending approval by University President Henry Bienen and Athletic Director Rick Taylor, tailgates could begin with Saturday’s match against Michigan State, said ASG President Jordan Heinz.
The current proposal is the latest of several entertained by administrators and ASG leaders, said Heinz, an Education senior. Under the proposal, students 21 and over could enter a fenced-off area at Ryan Field, Heinz said.
“If you’re not 21, you’re not going to get in,” he said. “You need to be of age.”
Non-alcoholic drinks would be provided for underage students in a separate area, Heinz added. Administrators would monitor student behavior and attendance at each tailgate to determine whether the tailgates will continue.
Bienen wrote in an e-mail Monday that although Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis mentioned the proposal to him, he had not yet seen it. Taylor said he also had not seen the proposal.
“We’ll really take our marching orders from Vice President Banis,” Taylor said. “If he thinks it will work, we’ll certainly try to make it work.”
NU fraternity presidents voted in May 1999 to make tailgates alcohol-free effective the following Fall Quarter. The decision came in response to administrative pressure for compliance with U.S. law and national fraternity charters that prohibit underage drinking. The Interfraternity Council continued to hold dry tailgates during Fall Quarter 1999, but the events slowly disappeared.
Administrators and ASG leaders met several times a week for more than a year to make the proposal, Heinz said. Any issue dealing with alcohol is “touchy” with the administration, he said.
“They have a lot of really valid concerns,” he said.
Heinz said he hopes, however, that the current proposal will calm administrators’ fears. Guards at the entrance of the tailgate area will check WildCARDs to verify that only students of age enter, and consumption will be limited to two drinks per game, Heinz said.
ASG began searching in April to find sponsors for the tailgates. If approved, each tailgate will have two sponsors, one distributor to provide the alcohol and a local bar to serve it.
So far, plans are to have Nevin’s Pub and the 1800 Club as the bar sponsors and Budweiser and Heineken as the distributor sponsors, Heinz said. This sponsorship takes away the need for university funding. Heinz said he also hopes that student groups will take the proposal as a jumping-off point to cook food for the tailgates.
Phil Ordway, Education senior and IFC president, said that while IFC has purchased its usual 10 permits for fraternities to use space at the stadium, each chapter will decide whether to offer food.
Heinz said tailgates have been a part of celebrating teams throughout the history of football. He said he hopes to bring back a strong sense of school spirit to the university that disappeared with the tailgates three years ago.
“It was the only time where you saw so many students coming out to celebrate NU,” Heinz said.
