The Boulevard

[Cheesesteak]

Committee weighing options

By Taylor Armstead
Contributing writer
smudailycampus.com
February 18, 2005

While rumors and finger pointing continue to swirl over the fizzling of tailgating on the Boulevard at the end of last football season, students and administration have joined forces to solve such issues as the lack of control of underage drinking.

With Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission breathing down the necks of both students, namely fraternity members, and administrators, the situation escalated to the point that both sides agreed that SMU desperately needed a plan. Shawn Heilbron, Athletic Director of Sales and Marketing, quickly took action. He formed a committee to look into this issue, asking Student Body President Chip Hiemenz to head up the committee. , Hiemenz appropriately called the committee “The Boulevard Task Force.”

“I asked him to appoint people to the committee to represent the student body… We wanted students that participate, that come to the games and the Boulevard so they can serve as ambassadors,” Heilbron said.

Hiemenz, who also serves on this committee, said, “Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission has never come out [to tailgates on the Boulevard] until last year… If they really raided it they could have shut down the Boulevard because of all the underage drinking.”

Heilbron, reflecting concerns of the administration, further explained, “There came a need to put into place a new system… to streamline the underage drinking on the Boulevard.”

SMU senior and committee member Farrar Johnson was serving as president of Kappa Kappa Gamma when the concern about the Boulevard tailgating came to light.

“I had to figure out how to get students to the game,” she said, noting that the underage-drinking crackdown on the Boulevard upset students. “Students were caught off guard.”

Johnson understands her peers’ concerns. “The solution was that the university was forced to recognize and fix the problem… and to do so quickly. I think the quick timing perhaps led to some communication breakdown between the administration and students.”

Hiemenz agreed, “People were upset because of change going on, and lots of the people who were upset were under 21, they were upset with the regulations.”

Johnson, who enjoys attending the tailgates and says she makes a point to show her Mustang spirit at the football games, understands the consequences SMU faces if a student drinking on the Boulevard ends up getting hurt. SMU could be held responsible.

The search for solutions continues.

“The consequences of TABC coming were that SMU faculty and staff checked SMU ID’s against a birthday list of all the people who are of legal age to drink,” Johnson said.

Hiemenz questioned, “Is this something we are wanting to do again?” He added a crucial point that many students have apparently overlooked. “It is tough to make an argument against the law.”

Heilbron’s committee is “looking at alternatives that don’t involve alcohol…for people underage and for people who don’t want to drink,” Hiemenz said.

Now the SMU athletic department must provide the fraternities with bartenders upon their request. “Bartenders who are consistent is what we need for next year,” Hiemenz proposed.

Contributing an important outlook on future Boulevard plans, Heilbron emphasized, “This fall is very important because we are moving out of the Western Athletic Conference and into Conference USA. We will be with teams like Houston and Tulane which is much more of a regional focus, not [like] San Jose State…it is very important for students to support the Boulevard.”

“In the next couple of weeks the ‘Boulevard Task Force’ committee will work towards a solution…to make the Boulevard fun and exciting for everyone on campus,” Hiemenz said.

But Johnson concluded with the ultimate goal of both the student government and the athletic marketing department “The main issue is getting students to the game.”

[Mike Damone]

I don't see wht the problem is. Does SMU provide alcohol to the underage students? If I was just a 20 year old student and brought a cooler of beer and tailgated in my own area, would someone come by to card me? I'm aware that its school property, but do they have to regulate every square inch at all times?

[MustangSally]

I think the problem was, fraternities or other groups would roll up with a 6ft high palette of beers, and just start passing them out to anyone and everyone, I've even heard highland park kids just strolled the blvd getting free beers with no one noticing. Eventually TABC visited or the police said something to the school, so SMU had to do SOMEthing, you can't ignore laws. So they made it a rule, your tent could pass out beers if you had an 'official' bartender passing them out, checking IDs, etc.

Now if a kid goes out there with beer in a cup, will anyone card him? Probably not, but just the 'buzz' that SMU was 'cancelling the BLVD' pissed off enough students so they assumed they couldnt do anything there.

[MrMustang1965]

What the heck constitutes an 'official' bartender? A license after passing a course in 'mixology' from the Texas Bartending Academy?

[couch 'em]

There has to be a happy medium for this. I have a hard time accepting that the school really cares if people drink underage and don't cause trouble. They are concerned about their image and liability.

Do this: Have bartenders checking IDs to give drinks. Have them give 'only one' drink at a time. Problem solved. Licensed bartenders are supposed to not give alcohol to underage people, so that solves all problems. Underage can drink. Not too much red tape. And if someone does something really stupid that could make the school look bad, like get hurt (darwin in action, I say) then they have no liability.

[MrMustang1965]

Ya know...The Boulevard is SMU's version of The Grove at Ole Miss. In fact, didn't it come about as a result of Dr. Turner's connection to the Oxford, MS institution? What do they do at Ole Miss/The Grove to handle this problem?

[MustangSally]

The grove at Ole Miss is probably not smack dab in the center of a super-rich, super-dry town. That's my guess...Highland Park/University Park acts like anything SMU does is a pain in the [deleted] and could be detrimental to the neighborhood (like building heights, etc), but don't they realize they have a world-class university and all its resources in their own backyard?

[Mike Damone]

They do nothing in the Grove about it. Seriously.

But its also a different atmosphere. I don't believe there are any fraternity tents. And so many people have been doing it for years and getting the best spots is so competitive, that you have to stake claim at like 4:00 am that day. No college kid is going to do that, especially when his parents or friends parents will have a tent. So every tent "owns" to an alum or adult and basically if the adults choose to serve a minor, no one will do anything about it.

That said, it is 100x more difficult to get booze INTO the game at Ole Miss than it is at SMU. They pat you down there.

[Water Pony]

My observations:

- Minimize the abuse of under-age drinking (for legal and ethical reasons) with tents that have controlled access (e.g. entrance, etc.). Only those 21 and over can be served. Cups may be passed, but you can't ensure 100% compliance.

- Close the tents down and/or stop serving no later than 15 minutes before kick-off. Getting students to the game on-time would make a big difference.

- Focus on b*tts in the seats when team runs on to the field. That's excitement! A commitment and tradition of support may be defined at that moment. It is up to the team to keep them there with spirited and winning football.

[EastStang]

Colored wrist bands and bartenders are a great way to deal with it. When you come onto the boulevard you get carded, if you are of age, you get a red wristband and you vary colors from game to game. If you don't have the proper colored wristband, you can't be served alcohol. If you don't have a wristband and are caught drinking, the server gets nailed. End of issue.

[MustangSally]

I think the problem is, with any sort of wrist-band system or anything, the students just won't go at all. 21 years old is most of the juniors and seniors, but organizations want to recruit the freshmen on campus, and if they can't hang out with them during the first few weeks of school on the blvd, then they just won't have a tent, or they'll try to set something else up before the game. It's not so much about 'I want to tailgate before the game' as it is about 'who can I tailgate with before the game.' The fraternities all want to pair up with sororites, the sororities all think they can't have any freshmen girls around if TABC is tazering people with beers, so then no one sets up a tent, and so on...

What needs to happen is somehow get word to the masses that yes, underage drinking is illegal...no, you probably won't get caught.

I know a lot of the fraternities host parties in their houses on occasion, so what would be the problem with encouraging them to do it on gamedays if they arent going to have a tent. Granted, it's not on the blvd, but it'd be better than nothing. It might even be kind of intimidating for visiting fans to drive down SMU/Yale blvd and having obscenities and beer cans thrown at you, I know that stuff happens to me on regular weekdays and it's pretty scary.

[Eddie P]

Why do people throw stuff at you?

[EastStang]

The wristbands just identify who can drink, not who can or cannot hang out. The freshmen/sophomores would be welcome to go their respective frat tents, they just couldn't drink booze. Just put a nice punch bowl out with some baptist punch in it. If someone accidentally spikes it, well boys will be boys.

[couch 'em]

If you knew him...... you'd know