On Tuesday Sept. 16, just days before the first football game of the season, an all-school e-mail was sent detailing a new tailgate policy, in which alcohol is prohibited at all venues, including in the tailgate area, as is amplified music. The email, signed by Dean of Students Katy Smith Abbott, Director of Public Safety Elizabeth Burchard and Athletic Director Erin Quinn and which cites ensuring a safe, healthy environment and consistency with the NESCAC sportsmanship clause as the main reasons, came as a shock to multiple constituencies within the College community.
Though Quinn and President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz assert that the conversation of changing this policy formally began last year, and years before informally, the all-school email was the first time that students were looped into the conversation, including elected student officials like SGA President Taylor Custer ’15.
“I was shocked that the student body wasn’t consulted in any way. If I hadn’t heard anything about it, then it’s unlikely that any student had,” Custer said.
“Students--particularly those legally old enough to drink— do not understand why that liberty is being taken away without reason,” added Francesca Haass ’16.5 in a letter to Liebowitz.
“They are frankly insulted that the school chose to justify this policy change with an email that was, for lack of a better word, bulls--t. If you are going to take away freedoms from students, have the courtesy and courage to do so in an honest manner rather than couching it in a vague NESCAC statement. Maybe you do have very legitimate reasons, and I think the students would be very interested in hearing your arguments so that a real debate about student life on Middlebury’s campus can take place,” Haass’ letter read.
A petition entitled “Reverse Changes in the New Tailgating Policy” was drafted through WeTheMiddKids and received 2,507 votes, by far the largest number of votes an SGA petition has received since its formation.
However, college officials stand by the argument that there is clear reasoning for their decision, including one incident which Quinn refers to as the “tipping point”: the homecoming game versus Trinity College.
“An unmanageable number of students and alumni, I couldn’t tell you the exact number, but well over 100, were very intoxicated,” Quinn explained.
“I was getting phone calls from Public Safety saying, ‘Erin, we are trying to clear the parking lot and get people back into the stadium so that they will stop drinking. They are really drunk; they are belligerent; they are swearing at us, but they don’t want to go into the game.’”
Quinn explained that prior to this point, the College had made some incremental changes to the tailgating policy in response to what he calls “an increasing number of belligerent students and alumni at games.”
One incremental change was the decision to open the tailgate area only an hour and a half before kickoff to limit on-site drinking. Likewise, College policy mandated that the tailgate area be cleared after kickoff and then again once after halftime, in attempts to limit alcohol consumption.
At the Trinity game, however, Quinn instructed Public Safety to keep the students and alumni within the tailgate area, despite the policy.
“If they can’t handle them out there, contained and isolated, then it will be far worse inside the stadium. So I thought how can we minimize liability, because we don’t have the people in the stadium to control them. That in and of itself is a scene that is not acceptable,” Quinn said.
According to Quinn, some tailgaters went on to steal food and beverages from Trinity families and run across the road to use the bathroom publically.
However, what many constituencies have taken objection to the most is not the justification for the policy, but the lack of transparency around the decision making process itself.
At an SGA meeting with Quinn and Smith Abbott, SGA Senator Michael Brady ’17.5 asked about demonstrated this concern.
“I think what a lot of students are struggling with is that we weren’t given any real, hard facts about the bad behavior. The Trinity game was mentioned, but do you have any hard facts? Was there a big increase in property damage, hospital visits, or complaints from community members?” Brady said.
Quinn stressed Public Safety’s inability to contain students, and its efforts to keep the local police from intervening.
“I know this might not be satisfactory, but we don’t have any hard data,” Quinn answered.
One alum and current parent also voiced his concerns about what the policy would lead to.
“Banning alcohol and witch-hunting underage drinking on campus doesn’t work well anyway, it just creates smaller groups, drives students off-campus, and encourages pre gaming type behavior,” he explained.
“I understand that the administration wants to get the drinking under control at events,” alumna and current parent Heidi Lehner ’72 said. “But drinking amongst even underclassmen is inevitable and I am concerned with the binge drinking culture increasing on campus.”
Liebowitz sent an all school e-mail on Tuesday, Sept. 23 offering context for the tailgating policy, in which he apologized for not being more transparent, “It is clear that preparatory communications would have served everyone, including us, well and so we apologize for what was a surprise to many,” he stated.
That said, Old Chapel was not immediately apologetic. In one meeting with the Campus, it was explained that the College does not usually consult students on policy changes that affect all of the College’s constituencies.
While Burchard felt that the administration’s communication to students on this issue has been overlooked.
“We have communicated to students about the tailgate policy,” Burchard explained. “Last year we sent a campus wide notice explaining all of the tailgate rules. We posted signs at the tailgate area, and officers and security staff members warned people when the rules were being violated or if conduct was unacceptable. “
Likewise, Liebowitz referenced a Community Council meeting in March, where a conversation about the policy change took place. Although it was mentioned, there is no reference to the policy in the minutes of that meeting.
Despite different perceptions of what was communicated, there have been over-whelming amounts of both positive and negative feedback, however, the threat from alumni to withdraw donations is concerning.
“Many of the younger class agents are resigning which is worrisome,” said President of the Alumni Association Bob Sideli.
Although he does not think the affect on contributions to the college will be “dramatic,” he expresses “anything that causes the [alumni] to disconnect is unfortunate.”
But the feedback has by no means been consistently bad.
“We received emails from some NESCAC schools, I won’t say which ones, but who more or less hinted that this may have broken the ice and other schools might follow; no one seemed to want to step out front and address an issue that was really coming into focus at other schools as well,” Liebowitz concluded.
