We still stand by our previous position that the administration is unjustified in pushing students toward an alcohol-free life.

If students pay their bills, work their jobs and stay abreast of the law like any of the adults in the National Cyclone Club, whom the administration deems trustworthy enough to drink, then they also should be trusted to drink during ISU football Saturdays.

So we hope the administration will step back and realize the error in its unreasonable stance. But one way of making them reach that stage faster would be for students to strive for more maturity in their behavior.

By this, we mean going beyond not overturning cars or physically assaulting rival fans — we mean that students should pay better attention to how anything they do can reflect their level of maturity.

This can include actually throwing their trash in the garbage cans provided at the grass lots and stadium, for example.

But at least the lots and stadium are cleaned up after a day no matter how poorly the students treat them.

There are other offenses that aren’t so easily cleaned up, such as the vulgar shirts that were in force at the Iowa State-Iowa game.

One particularly offensive shirt cartoonishly depicted Cy performing anal sex with Iowa’s mascot, Herky the Hawk.

Now, there is undoubtedly a wide range of cheers and displays that motivate our players, but we think it is unlikely that the prospect of sodomizing their rivals is a winning slogan for Coach McCarney and his team.

Nor does it give families with children who have to see these shirts in plain view much reason to cheer for students when students make the claim to the administration that they are mature enough to handle alcohol and tailgating.

We could go from here to cover such obvious points as the importance of good sportsmanship or for restraint in displaying sexual fantasies on the back of our shirts, but the timeliest issue now is student respect.

The administration already appears to be overly authoritarian on its alcohol stance, and if students can also show a higher sense of decency, that will give the administration even less ground to disrespect students.

We’re not saying that students should restrict themselves to the discourse and behavior of a Disney cartoon character, but there is a clear line between a fan who makes the game fun and a fan who makes life miserable for anyone not as intoxicated as he or she is.

If students are responsible enough to tailgate with alcohol, they should be responsible enough to realize at least this.

Editorial Board:Nicole Paseka, Megan Hinds, Amy Schierbrock, Alicia Ebaugh