The atmosphere in lots S-6, S-7 and S-8 was quiet and relaxed before Iowa State’s first football game of the season Saturday against the University of Northern Iowa.

Alumni sat in lawn chairs in front of campers and buses, quietly conversing with friends and family before the game. Every once in a while a pack of children ran by throwing around a football.

But for 1987 ISU alumnus and National Cyclone Club member Kevin Cullen, something was missing, something was different. Yes, things were quiet, but for Cullen, a Des Moines resident, it was too quiet and relaxed.

“It’s too dull around here,” he said. “It was a lot more colorful and now it’s a lot less enthusiastic and fun as it was before.”

Something was missing from the atmosphere this year, which had been there in previous years, Cullen said.

The missing factor was students, he said.

Cullen and his family and friends have been tailgating in the same spot in Lot S-8 for 12 years, he said. The reason they continued to return to the same spot every year was because of student enthusiasm, he said.

“If I had to make the call, I would have left [students] where they were,” Cullen said.The student enthusiasm adds to the whole atmosphere.”

Cullen said he and his family and friends have not had problems with students’ behavior during the 12 years they’ve tailgated.

“It was fine. There were no problems. Never once was anyone in our group offended by what students did,” he said. “We have kids here, and students would play catch with them. There were no problems, and I felt fine with my kids being next to student tailgating.”

Cullen said he believes it is a joke to say student enthusiasm posed risks to people’s security and safety.

“I think students have just as much right to have access to ISU facilities and parking as donors do,” he said. “They shouldn’t be penalized because they’re at a phase of their life where they can’t contribute financially the way alumni can.”

Heidi Carson, a member of the National Cyclone Club who also parks in Lot S-8, agreed with Cullen.

“It didn’t feel like an Iowa State tailgate,” Carson said.

Carson, a resident of Ogden, has been tailgating in the same spot in S-8 for about five years. She said she believes student tailgating in that lot and others around the stadium was not a problem.

Brad Summy, a 1996 alumnus and National Cyclone Club member, disagreed with Carson and Cullen.

“When people are getting so drunk that they’re throwing things, publicly urinating and using profanity when families are walking by, that’s not good at all, said Summy, an Ames resident. “Families don’t need to see that.”

Summy said the athletic department and the university need as much money as they can get for the stadium and for the building of a new practice facility. In that end, he said he believes it is acceptable for donors to get priority over students.

“[National Cyclone Club members] pay a lot of money for these parking spots and if a college student can afford that, then fine. To me, the spot is nothing. It’s a status thing,” Summy said. “Students should make way for people who have put in their time as students and who do bring a lot of money with them.

“College students should have a part in tailgating and are important in adding to the atmosphere of games, but they don’t need to be as close as they were to do that.”

Karl King, a 1981 alumnus from Ankeny, said spirit and pride are not shown in the parking lot, but in the stadium.

Jim Mason, Ames resident, said he disagrees with that notion. He said moving students away from the stadium to grass lots gives them less of a positive influence on team spirit.

“I think anything you do to limit students and their interaction with the football team is negative,” said Mason, a member of the National Cyclone Club. “When the [ISU] administration lumps all student actions together based on the negative behavior of a few, [students] unfairly get short-changed.”

Rich Green, a resident of Urbandale and National Cyclone Club member, said he believes students were not well-informed about the decision to move students.

“It seems to me they just got the boot,” Green said. “Any program, when it needs to get to the next level, needs the support of alumni and donors, but you also need your student support and students should have designated spots in lots with close proximity to the stadium.”

John Shriver, a National Cyclone Club member from Independence, said he sympathizes with students because he is in the same situation this year that students are in.

When he was mailed his parking permit for the year, he learned he had been moved from his normal parking spot in B-4 to S-5. Shriver said he had been in the same spot in B-4 for about seven years.

“[The NCC] are saying they [moved me to S-5] because of increased ticket sales, the same reason they gave to students for why they moved them,” Shriver said. “I sympathize.”

“It’s a lot of inconvenience and it disturbs your old tailgating relationships by having to walk half way around the stadium to meet your old friends.”