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New tailgate guidelines announced

Lawn, Range residents work with Dean of Students to produce new procedure for hosting football parties

Head Lawn Resident Ben Chrisinger yesterday announced the revised procedures for social activities on the Lawn and Range before home football games. The new rules are the product of a meeting between Lawn and Range residents and Dean of Students Allen Groves.\nChrisinger said many of the rules are similar to the guidelines put in place after last fall's football game against Southern California, which resulted in a short tailgate ban because of disorderly behavior on the Lawn.\nAccording to the guidelines, Lawn residents are allowed no more than 40 guests - identified by colored wristbands - to their rooms before each football game. Though wristbands were used even before last year's home game against University of Maryland, some additional changes to the policy also have been enacted.\n"One of the major changes is that wristbands are reusable," Chrisinger said.\nLawn residents receive only 40 wristbands for the entire season, and "distribution [to guests] is up to the Lawn resident."\nHe also said it is the resident's responsibility to collect and redistribute the wristbands after each event.\nCertain students, however, expressed dismay with the new wrist-band policy. Lawn resident Gardner Bell said the policy carries "the stigma that the privileged few get to enjoy the Lawn."\nSecond-year College student Daniel Furman echoed Bell's views.\n"It's like identifying VIP's," he said.\nThe new procedures also discuss the legal restrictions of consuming alcohol in the Lawn area. The guidelines state that "alcohol is not to be consumed in public areas of the Lawn and Range," in accordance with both University policy and state laws. Chrisinger's procedural guidelines did note, however, that alcohol may be consumed "on the patio space immediately outside of a Lawn or Range room."\nGroves also emphasized the restriction on alcohol.\n"There is no liquor license for the Lawn," he said.\nLawn residents will also be held responsible for their guests' behavior, according to the guidelines.\n"The primary drivers of compliance need to be the residents of the Lawn and Range," Groves said. The residents are also "solely responsible for ensuring that any invited guest who is provided a wristband and served alcohol by that resident is legally permitted to consume alcohol," according to the procedure.\nThird-year College student Jacques Farhi said he believes the new procedures are unfair toward University students.\n"Visitors are generally the people who have caused property damage," he said, questioning whether there was a way to keep the trouble-makers out without punishing the University community at large.\nSimilarly, Bell said although he understood the rationale behind the policies, he is concerned about unintended effects of the new procedures.\n"It's legally tricky," he said. "I thought tailgates were [a] great way to bring people to the Lawn, and it's sad to limit that."\nThe restrictions exist solely to prevent negative and disorderly situations from arising, Groves said.\n"In the last two years we have had bad situations that resulted in cancelling all social activities [on the Lawn prior to home football games]," he said. "We can't let that happen as a community"

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