A year-long series of discussions and negotiations between students, administrators, ISU police and athletic department officials has finally paid off.

Students are back in Cyclone country. Well, not students specifically. Lot S-4, once populated by college-aged pregame revelers, has once again been designated a public lot, complete with clearance for the consumption of alcohol.

But there are some changes.

The agreement reached between the parties includes restrictions on what are termed as high-risk drinking behaviors. Kegs, beer bongs and funnels are restricted from the space because administrators are concerned that the behavior that justified the loss of the space last summer would occur again.

The agreement also calls for an increased number of portable restrooms and trash receptacles around the lot, presumably to help battle the respective issues of public urination and litter.

“We’re being given a chance to show that we as students can act in a way that some people in the administration feel is appropriate,” said Will Rock, vice president of the Government of the Student Body. “And that’s not altogether unreasonable.”

In order to ensure that fears of another lot full of unruly, drunken students doesn’t become a reality, the group agreed to ask the Department of Public Safety for an increased presence in the area, which Dean of Student Affairs Pete Englin said amounts to roughly four or five officers.

But they won’t be alone. Both student affairs staff and students have pledged to maintain a presence in the area to help ensure civility. This, student leaders said, may provide an unintended benefit.

“I think it’ll be a good opportunity,” said Sophia Magill, GSB president. “One thing we want to do more in this coming fall is to work more with students, and I think it’ll be great for us to just be there, to be right where the students are and talking to them about what they feel is important, what they want to do.”

Keeping the area under control is a common goal to all involved, Magill said.

“We all have a vested interest in that,” she said.

Other stipulations put forth by the group include more signs in the area to spell out more clearly the rules of the parking lot, and an expectation that tailgaters will attend the game itself, not just show up for the alcohol. According to policy changes released by the group, fans will be encouraged to enter the stadium no later than the playing of the national anthem.

But group members say that while this last stipulation is ideal, there will be no actual rules in place to enforce it. Ideas kicked around within the group, such as checking tailgaters for tickets, will not be implemented.

Lot S-4, once teeming with students during home games, was designated for gameday operations last summer when the other paved lots were reserved for the National Cyclone Club after school administrators became discouraged over the behavior of the lot’s former inhabitants. Complaints of binge drinking, destructive behavior and public urination led to the transfer of the lot’s intended users. In response, GSB officials formed the Student Gameday Experience Committee, which was created to work with administrators and other concerned parties to bring the lot back into the public domain.

But some administrators, notably Vice President for Student Affairs Thomas Hill, remained adamant that if such a lot were to be given back, it should be a students-only lot with a no-alcohol restriction.

Students maintained that a public lot with reasonable alcohol restrictions would be the only fair replacement for what was lost. By late spring, discussions had reached an impasse, with student leaders considering cutting $5 from student fee allocations to the athletic department in order to pay for the lot themselves.

“We’d said, ‘This is our last chance at this option, and we do have other options, and we are obligated to explore them,'” said Andrew Tugan, a member of the committee since its beginning. “It was a rare situation in which the student body had some kind of leverage.”

But a compromise was reached by the end of the spring semester, with only one meeting this summer to discuss implementation of the plan.

Now, with Iowa State’s first home game not far away, students have their lot back, and Tugan, for one, is satisfied.

“It’s great,” he said.

“First of all, it’s nice to see that it’s done, but most of all, its nice to see that it’s done with positive results.

“I can’t say that we’ve won or lost, I don’t think anyone really won or lost, but the student body is coming out better than when we started.”