The SGA voted Wednesday to support a student group tailgate initiative that members say would address a lack of tailgating options on the campus and generate a greater sense of school spirit.
The Student Affairs Committee has led a campaign to organize a tailgate for Student Government Association-recognized student groups. This effort “would provide students the opportunity to participate in an inclusive tailgate on campus” and “may potentially increase attendance at football games, along with participation in student groups,” according to the resolution.
The legislature passed the resolution 26-0 with one abstention.
“We’d like to create a tailgate that’s open to the campus community, where students can go and celebrate before the football game, have fun, meet other members of their student groups or other student groups in general,” said Jonathan Allen, an SGA undergraduate studies representative who sponsored the resolution.
After this vote of approval, the Student Affairs Committee will survey students to gauge interest in the initiative and present feedback to the administration.
“Following that, we’d have a sit-down conversation with the administration to talk about different ways that we can plan this, where on campus we could potentially use for the tailgates and also figure out everything regarding funding and logistics,” said Allen, a sophomore enrolled in letters and sciences.
The Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association hold tailgates at this university now, but they are only open to members of IFC and PHA fraternity and sorority chapters and their guests, Allen said.
Furthermore, when some sororities do not have access to wristbands of admission for every tailgate, which in the past has led to people asking for sexual favors in return for wristbands, Allen said. Some sororities choose not to receive wristbands for a tailgate based on each chapter’s budgetary decisions.
Allen during the meeting referenced a September 2015 guest column in The Diamondback that was critical of the IFC’s system.
“The way the system is set up now, you essentially have to be sleeping with or dating a guy if you are a girl who wants to go to a tailgate,” Allen read from the column.
It would be the responsibility of the student organizations to bring their own food and drinks, and student tailgates would have security and strict guidelines similar to the IFC’s tailgates, said SGA Vice President of Student Affairs A.J. Pruitt. Although his committee is still deciding what kind of system to propose, Pruitt said he envisions allowing student groups to buy and reserve certain numbers of tailgate tickets.
The SGA would be the “organizing force” behind the tailgate that would collect funds from student groups, manage a budget and arrange for security, Pruitt said.
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the SGA announced two new members of its Finance Committee and voted to allocate funding for three student group events — including a dodgeball tournament and a charity bubble soccer game after previously denying their requests.
