At the request of President Karen A. Holbrook, a committee is being formed to look at the game day behavior and what can be changed to better represent Ohio State on game days.
As a result many students have been offended for being blamed for what has been going on for years.
“To me it’s sad because the way President Holbrook and the committee are coming across, it seems they are blaming the students. She is already making some enemies,” said Shawn Collier, the public relations director for Block O. Collier will represent Block O and the Undergraduate Student Government on the committee.
The committee will look at the use of offensive T-shirts and alcohol that promote bad behavior on Lane Avenue on game days.
Hineygate, the famous tailgate party that takes place on Lane Avenue, is in a very specific area, said Steve Konrad, program director of 610 WTVN-AM, which sponsors the Hineygate party at the Holiday Inn.
“The actual Hineygate party is in the Holiday Inn parking lot. That crowd has always been one of the best-behaved crowds ever seen; it’s a controlled environment,” Konrad said.
“Every week there are a varying number of fans from other teams here; there is always gentle ribbing but never any fistfights,” Konrad said.
Another aspect of the Lane Avenue tailgating experience is the Varsity Club.
“Fans from other schools love coming to OSU for games,” said Dave Maddox, supervisor of security at the Varsity Club. “I talked to some Penn State fans that had tickets to the game and didn’t even go, because they were having so much fun here.”
Both Maddox and Konrad said OSU is incredibly organized on game days.
“It’s interesting that ESPN did a Game Day show here. We seemed very organized compared to other places,” Konrad said.
However some people on the committee said they feel differently about the behavior on game day.
“It’s about sportsmanship. Over time we have made it less comfortable for our guests to be in certain places on campus, and it may be getting worse,” said Dan Heinlen, president of the OSU Alumni Association and the Alumni Association representative on the committee.
Collier said he does understand their concern, because he has seen some things happen at the games that were in bad taste. But these occurrences are not isolated to OSU, he said.
“It’s a few bad eggs that make everyone look bad, but that is normal. It happens at every campus and every sporting event,” Collier said.
Most of the time it seems to be more the alumni and fans than the students coming to campus and getting drunk and rude before the games Collier said.
“In all fairness the students do their own thing, party at their houses and go to the games,” Collier said.
Whether it is in the spirit of competitiveness or not, some actions need to change, and people need to think about their actions, Heinlen said.
“It’s about the reputation of this university,” Heinlen said. “I would like to treat people the way we would like to be treated.”
Changes to game day behavior will not change overnight, it will take a while to work through, Heinlen said. “She (President Holbrook) is thinking about future seasons, not just the rest of this season.”
Perhaps for the remainder of this season, the committee should worry about what could happen after the Michigan game as far as riots and parties go instead of focusing on the T-shirts, Collier said.
