Gameday crime changes tailgating rules

Saturdays in the fall have traditionally been associated with pre-game tailgates, but new guidelines and regulations have changed the ritual.

"I agree with the new changes," said Jorge Vazquez, interim director for Special Events and game-day manager. "Fewer reports happen, and it's more of a family-friendly atmosphere. We get compliments all the time now on how clean the campus is and those calls mean a lot to us."

The past few tailgates have left a mess for Special Events staff, who is in charge of keeping the campus clean after games.

"We have tailgaters who are very courteous and keep the area clean," Vazquez said. "But on the other hand, we have the ones who are anxious to go to the game and leave behind their containers and trash."

Grounds keepers are hired by the Office of Special Events to make sure people keep the area clean and to pick up after the tailgaters who leave trash behind. Special Events rents trashcans and places them all over the campus for tailgaters' convenience and special containers to dispose of charcoal to avoid fires.

Special Events, Office of Student Life and UTEP's Police Department recently came out with new tailgating regulations. These departments are in charge of making sure they have everything in place and keep order on gamedays.

"Student safety is what's most important to us," said Alex Munoz, former President of the Student Government Association and senior double major in finance and accounting. "We still want people to have a good time and enjoy the tailgates, because it's part of UTEP's tradition, but we also want the campus to be well taken care of, have a good atmosphere and promote school spirit."

There were three cases of underage drinking and four Class A assaults reported Oct. 9. All offenders were non-UTEP affiliated individuals.

"As a student, I feel like we had a lot of trouble from high school students and people not affiliated with UTEP," Munoz said. "Usually the students are well-behaved; they clean-up and take care of the campus, but people from outside come and they cause fights and leave the campus dirty. I think during the NMSU game things got out of hand."

Many offenders during the Sept. 18 and 25 tailgates were non-UTEP affiliated individuals and breached regulations. At these tailgates, more than 40 non-UTEP affiliated individuals were cited for underage drinking, Class A and Class C assaults, auto theft and public intoxication.

"I think it's a downer," said Josh Medina, freshmen engineering major. "Everything was pretty good until alcohol is involved, everybody just gets kind of really heated but I don't see why that's a reason for separating everyone like that"

UTEP Police Chief Clifton Walsh said that not all people cited for underage drinking were UTEP students.

"It's important to note that not everybody cited was a student," Walsh said. "They were handled like any other incident that occurs on campus, if there's a criminal action that occurs, we conduct an investigation and continue that investigation until its logical end."

After the new regulations went in to effect Sept. 25, the tailgate resulted in eight arrests, and most reports were of minors with possession of alcohol.

"The role of any police department is public safety. UTEP police try to maintain that safe atmosphere while promoting the tailgate," Walsh said. "The new regulations were started because this university needs to conduct business. We have students who may be attending (class) on Saturdays and the change in that time is an effort to promote the university business and ensure that our students that are paying for their education receive the quality education that they deserve to have."

According to students, the regulations have affected tailgating and game attendance.

"It's definitely affecting the football team," Medina said. "The more fans that are there, the better the football team is going to try to perform and there are just not that many people there anymore, so it takes away from the fun."

Walsh had a different opinion.

"I don't think the new regulations affect the attendance at the football games," Walsh said. "I think the attendance is driven by the athletics department and the initiatives that we have in place to promote athletics."

Candice Marlene Duran may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.