Ohio State and leaders of the city of Columbus have recently created a task force to curb riots that have plagued the off-campus district for more than a year.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman and OSU President Karen A. Holbrook met with other city and university officials in early December to study the reasons behind celebratory riotous behavior.

The committee will be comprised of university faculty, students and staff and city and community officials. David Andrews, dean of the College of Human Ecology, will head the committee.

Andrews has spent his last 21 years developing, implementing, evaluating and administering programs designed to enhance family and individual development. He has focused his research efforts on programs aimed at helping high-risk youth.

Local residents and students say they believe this program is a necessary step that should have been taken long ago. They say this is a problem students will not outgrow.

“I think a committee like this shouldn’t be formed in response to something. It should be a measure of avoiding something like this in the future and should have existed before any of the riots,” said Michael Bodmann, a senior in psychology.

The responsibility of the task force is to identify preventative measures and behavior-changing strategies of those involved and generate a list of deterrents and consequences for those who participate in dangerous and unlawful activities.

Steve Bratton, an apartment manager for Bratton Rentals and a member of the Peace Corps Reserves, said enforcing stiff punishment for those involved would deter others from following suit.

“I know in the military if you see some guy mess up and get punished, they make an example out of him and you don’t think about doing what he did,” Bratton said.

Bratton also noted that he has not seen any damages to his properties because of the riots and believes many of the problems are related to the influx of visitors who come to the games.

“I think more damage is done by fans, alumni and people staying for the weekend than by the students,” he said.

Consumption of alcohol by students and fans is believed to be the No. 1 cause of campus rioting.

“The excessive use of alcohol by young people, whether to celebrate a sports victory or the end of final exams, has led to far too much senseless destruction in our neighborhoods near campus,” Coleman said in a press release.

Andrews also stated in the press release it is likely that the entire task force will be broken into work groups that might focus on alcohol, including availability, open container laws and binge drinking, media influences and responses, peer influences and responses, university regulations and sanctions, community policing and law enforcement and others to be determined.

Much of the reason why students behave in such a manner, besides alcohol, may be attributed to the attention they receive from the local and national media.

“Students need a way to release their pride and celebration of the greatness of the school. That is threatened from a loss and heightened by a win. They riot because there is no other way to show the world immediately how they feel about OSU,” Bodmann said.

“So if people get attention and fame for doing things like tipping cars and lighting fires, it’s going to encourage more of that behavior and all of that’s exponential with drinking,” he said.

Many members of the community seem to be embarrassed and tired of the riotous image that Ohio State students are projecting.

Fred Finkelstein, a student at Columbus State and resident of the OSU district, said that OSU is at the center of many jokes and conversations at his school.

“It makes everyone look bad. People just can’t believe that they don’t care about their school and if they are so proud of going to OSU why don’t they take care of it?” he said. “It gives the school and the community such a bad reputation.”

Other goals of the task force are to prevent antisocial and violent behaviors on campuses, draw upon the expertise of those closest to his body of knowledge and construct a set of guidelines and policies that would facilitate the effectiveness of local responses.

The team is expected to complete its work by April 7.