For years, students who park their cars around Jack Trice Stadium during the week have been required to move them out of the lots the night before football game days. They’ll still do that Aug. 29, the eve of the Cyclones’ season opener against Northern Iowa.

But this year, most of those cars won’t be returning on Saturday.

A major revision to the football parking plan this fall means that people who are not members of the National Cyclone Club — including most current ISU students — won’t be able to park their cars in the lots surrounding the stadium.

The decision to make the change was based on concerns about providing parking for Cyclone Club members and supplying security on Saturdays, ISU officials said.

But when students tried to fight the change this summer, an additional issue arose. Drunken tailgating and illegal activities in public parking lots, especially by students not actually attending football games, became an obvious barrier to allowing students open areas near the stadium for pregame congregation.

“Some are there to rent a space to party, not a space to go to the game,” Dean of Students Pete Englin said July 7. “As I walk through those lots, I see a different kind of experience, in my opinion, in a very negative way.”

‘Now it’s going to be a lot different.’

The closest paved parking available to the general public will be in Parking Lot B-3 in the Iowa State Center lot. The 98 spaces just southwest of Hilton Coliseum will be reserved for automobiles at a charge of $7 per vehicle.

Students will also receive 50 free parking passes located throughout the northern Iowa State Center lots. The way tickets will be distributed among students has not yet been determined, although there has been talk of a lottery ran by the Government of the Student Body.

ISU athletics officials will direct most public vehicles, including recreational vehicles and buses, to grass lots on South 16th Street just east of Elwood Drive, near the College of Veterinary Medicine.

But the four lots on the east side of the stadium surrounding Gate 2 will be occupied by members of the National Cyclone Club.

The National Cyclone Club consists of athletic department donors. Adults ages 30 or over can join for as little as $100 annually, while the minimum contribution level for people ages 20—29 is $50 annually.

ISU athletic director Bruce Van De Velde said students could retain paved parking by joining the National Cyclone Club.

Iowa State plays seven home games in 2003, so a person who parked in a general public parking lot at each game would pay a total of $49.

A Varsity Club membership costs $50 and includes a free parking pass for the Iowa State Center parking lots nearest to Hilton Coliseum. Parking improves as a person increases his or her donation.

Nathan Johnston, ex officio student member of the Ames City Council, said students still deserve better treatment.

“Funders and all that are getting priority over students,” he said. “It’s like they’re saying, ‘Now if you want to have that position, you can pay for it.'”

When the new plan was first announced in June — with no paved parking allotted for the public — students said they were disappointed about the reorganization.

“I just think it’s too bad, because I’ve been going to tailgates for four years now,” said Joe Fox, senior in marketing.

“I know [tailgating] was a good time, and I think that it draws a lot of attention to our football team and gives us a lot of notability of being a good fan base,” Fox said. “So I think we’re going to lose that.”

Adam Douglas, junior in engineering, said the location close to the stadium made tailgating fun in the past.

“That’s one thing I always look forward to … being in that area, partying over there and tailgating,” he said. “Just walk and go inside and come back out, and now it’s going to be a lot different.”

‘It was inevitable that public parking would be driven farther out.’

A letter mailed to National Cyclone Club members in mid-June cited an increase in the number of donors and concerns about security as the reasons for the change.

According to the letter, standards provided by Iowa Homeland Security and the input of law enforcement agencies contributed to the new plan, along with an increase in National Cyclone Club members requiring more parking spaces.

One passage reads, “This [change] gives the Iowa State athletic department the opportunity to provide a more effective and efficient security plan on football game days, while addressing the needs of our National Cyclone Club members.”

Controlling access to the parking lots is one way to ensure security, ISU Department of Public Safety director Jerry Stewart said in a July 7 meeting.

“We are under increasing pressure to provide this buffer level around the stadium,” he said.

Stewart added last year’s homeland security efforts focused on professional sports, while this year’s efforts will place more emphasis on collegiate sports.

Earlier this summer, Stewart said the move had been coming for years because of increasing success of the ISU football team, which led to greater attendance and National Cyclone Club membership.

“It was inevitable that public parking would be driven farther out,” he said.

‘Many students aren’t going to know about it.’

When the new parking plan became public, several ISU students complained about losing easy access to the stadium and open areas traditionally used for tailgating.

“As an ISU student, you want to be close,” said Mike Banasiak, GSB president. “It is a spirit thing as well.”

Administrators held two meetings, on July 7 and 10, to address students’ concerns about the two plans.

At those meetings, students expressed concern that they were never involved in the decision-making process, and that the change was made public during the summer, when most students were away from Ames.

“It’s no coincidence, in my mind, that it happened when it did,” said Johnston,. “Many students aren’t going to know about it until they get back.

Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, said it is not always possible for important work to finish during the August through May school year, although members of his department try to make major decisions in that time period.

He admitted a mistake was made in this instance.

“We didn’t clue the students in on the front end … They should have been involved in the conversations from the very beginning,” he said. “But as soon as [the problem] came to light, we addressed

it.”

‘We still have a dangerous situation out there.’

Both Hill and Dean of Students Pete Englin said they were worried about student behavior in the parking lots on football game days.

“We’ve tried everything,” Hill said. “We still have a dangerous situation out there.”

“That particular physical location creates an environment where there’s a very different kind of celebration,” Englin said. “I wouldn’t even call it tailgating — it is, ‘We’re there to party and drink.’ A lot of other students, 6,500 of them, are elsewhere, preparing for and then coming to the game and not engaging in that experience.”

Englin said it was difficult to determine which people fell into the first category. “The proximity issue makes it easier to appear like you’re there and you care about what’s happening in the stadium,” he said. “If [students are] dispersed a little bit, I think they’ll still have a wonderful time tailgating and coming to enjoy the game.”

Hill said he has seen a lot of disturbing problems in six football seasons at Iowa State. “I was mortified the first time I walked through [the lots],” he said. “I said, ‘We need to clean this thing up.’

“We finally got people’s attention about this behavior … I’ve been trying for six years to get people to pay attention to it,” Hill said.

‘We are the future alumni.’

Tony Borich, sophomore in community and regional planning, said he was skeptical students would accept the reasons for the move, or that it would be effective in curbing illegal acts.

“I don’t think you’ll find anyone who will agree that simply moving the small minority of people who are causing the problems at tailgates around so that you can’t monitor them will correct their behavior, except to make it less noticeable,” Borich said.

Johnston said he doesn’t believe there is a crisis with student behavior outside games or with people tailgating but not attending the football games.

“Nothing’s different with tailgating … nothing’s different around here than in the last 20 years,” he said.

Johnston was unmoved by other arguments.

“I don’t buy that,” he said of the change providing additional security.

“Students are the best supporters of sports,” he added. “[Giving prioritized parking to National Cyclone Club members is] facilitating money that’s supporting the program, rather than students who really are the essence of the sports environment.”

Michelle Bohan, vice president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, agreed with Johnston.

“I just think students are worried that they’re getting pushed farther and farther away,” she said. “We are the future alumni, the future donors. [Some have] commented that they will never donate to this university, which kind of frightens me.”

Other concerns include the possible danger of intoxicated people crossing a busy Elwood Drive to get to the stadium, the possibility of more criminal activity in more thinly patrolled grass lots and confusion about the change in traffic flow when Iowa State hosts Northern Iowa.

Hill said the parking situation could certainly change in the future, and that he would be an advocate for students getting better parking — if the pregame behavioral problems went away.

He invited students to contact his office and student representatives with their concerns.

“A decision has got to be made,” Hill said. “But once a decision is made, that doesn’t mean that that’s the end of the dialogue.”