Associated Student Government members are uncertain whether their planned alcohol-friendly tailgate will take place before Saturday’s football game after the Athletics Department apparently gave ASG’s space to another group.
ASG President Jordan Heinz said Athletics Director Rick Taylor gave the location ASG had requested, Ryan Field’s east parking lot, to the Interfraternity Council, effectively killing ASG’s tailgate.
“Disappointment doesn’t begin to explain what I’m feeling right now,” said Heinz, an Education senior. “This project was my entire summer, and when you invest that much time in something and every detail is worked out and then it’s cut at the last minute, you really start to question where the students lie in the priorities of the university.”
But Taylor said he did not give ASG’s space away, and that there would be a meeting held today to decide the fate of the tailgates.
Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis said both IFC and ASG tried to salvage the tailgate situation Thursday by moving either the alcoholic tailgate or the fraternity tailgates to an area such as Wildcat Alley near the baseball fields. But the request came too late, Banis said.
“The request from both IFC and ASG came less than 48 hours before the game, and it puts a terrible burden on facilities people,” Banis said. “It has been a shifting scene all day in terms of information.”
However, IFC President Phil Ordway said he had no knowledge of such a request. He said fraternity tailgates would take place in the east lot like they have in the past.
“It’s our usual spot and we’re gonna be there again,” he said. “No one’s ever asked us to move.”
Up until about 4 p.m. Thursday, Heinz seemed to have everything in place for the tailgate. He had confirmed sponsors, raised the necessary funds and acquired insurance for the event after University President Henry Bienen approved the tailgates on Tuesday.
Although Heinz said he was disappointed, he agreed that the fraternity tailgates should take priority over the alcoholic event.
“The purpose of our tailgate was to revitalize the fraternity tailgates,” Heinz said. “If it came down to push and shove, the fraternity tailgate should have been in this spot.”
Ordway said the absence of the wet tailgates probably would not affect the fraternity tailgates. NU fraternity presidents voted to make fraternity tailgates dry in 1999 because of administrative pressure to comply with U.S. law and national fraternity charters that prohibit underage drinking.
About 10 fraternities still plan to tailgate Saturday. Festivities will include live music and barbecuing.
“The fraternities will have their tailgates there like they always have,” said Ordway, an Education senior. “It’s just impossible to say how many people were going to show up (to the wet tailgate) because it hasn’t been planned before.”
In lieu of the wet tailgate, Heinz said the Athletics Department will hand out free beer to students 21 and older at Wildcat Alley.
Heinz said the alternative plan was no consolation. “You can’t even compare the two,” he said.
Budweiser had planned to donate eight kegs of beer, and 1800 Club, would have donated labor. Four staffers would have checked identification of students and served the beer.
1800 Club, 1800 Sherman Ave., planned to promote its new menu at the tailgate, said Loren Rattner, the club’s general manager. NU students make up more than half of the club’s patrons. Rattner said his club would be happy to sponsor the tailgate again at Homecoming or another time.
“NU is our friend,” he said. “We have been on board since day one. We are definitely for it and we definitely want to be a part of it.”
And Heinz said he will keep working to make sure the tailgates do happen. He said he would like to see them at the Homecoming game against Minnesota on Oct. 13.
“I’m going to continue to work with the Athletics Department, because it seems they’re the only ones who can make this happen,” he said.
Former ASG President Adam Humann, who planned the tailgates with Heinz last year, said he was optimistic the tailgates would return to NU football soon.
“Provided it’s just a logistical problem that can be solved, then it’s not the biggest deal in the world,” said Humann, Weinberg ’01. “I’d be surprised if this was the end of it.”
