Iowa State’s win over Texas Tech Saturday marked the last 2002 Homecoming celebrated at a public university in Iowa. The three football games and festivities produced numerous alcohol violations in each campus community.

The Daily examined statistics for the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State and their home cities to see if the celebration outcomes were comparable.

In comparing the number of citations for possessions of alcohol under the legal age, the U of I campus police had 20 total violations at its first five games, while on Saturday alone, ISU Police issued 27 citations.

However, differences in policies practiced at the universities and cities might account for the large contrast in numbers.

Allowing students to leave games at halftime and tailgate more might contribute to a higher number of alcohol violations, said Lt. Michael Hanks of the U of I Department of Public Safety and ISU Police Capt. Gene Deisinger.

The students place themselves back into a watched area for offenders by exiting the stadium.

At the University of Iowa, a “no re-entry” policy is enforced, so once a student leaves the game they are not allowed back in, Hanks said.

Both Iowa State and UNI allow students to enter back in to the stadium for free, as long as they have proof of their ticket.

The number of tailgaters arrested or cited depends on the size of area they occupy. The more space, the more tailgaters, meaning more offenses, Deisinger said.

The University of Iowa has “scattered lots.”

“There is no one place where all the student tailgaters go,” Hanks said.

Sgt. Mike Brotherton, of Iowa City police, said “the university does a good job of patrolling their area, it’s just a lot smaller than ours. On game days the majority of the problems begin after the games end in downtown, where the bars are.”

At Iowa State, lot S7 is the free lot used by a high concentration of tailgaters, Deisinger said.

At UNI, “the hill,” a street next to UNI’s campus that has bars located on it, is considered to be the “hot spot” for tailgaters, said UNI Public Safety Director Dave Zarifis. Cedar Falls Police Capt. Jeff Olson agreed.

“The hill has had anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 people on it,” Olson said. “We’ve had to shut the street down before.”

Universities can possess liquor licenses that alters the rules on open containers of alcohol, Deisinger said. A student is allowed — as long as they are of legal age — to possess an open container of alcohol while on stadium property.

Iowa State, U of I and UNI have permits for students to have open containers as long as they remain on stadium property.

None of the universities permit service of alcohol inside the stadiums.

Each campus law enforcement agency also has different philosophies on how to approach alcohol at football games.

“We take a preventive, active approach,” Deisinger said. “We try to prevent problems from occurring by targeting problems.”

Deisinger said the statistics for the homecoming game were average. Public intoxication arrests increased but Deisinger said he had more complaints on disruptive behavior.

Hanks said the number of charges for U of I’s homecoming were average as well, although they normally have a few underage possessions.

“We do a lot of ejections before and during the game,” Hanks said. “It saves a lot of headaches for having to pull people over later.”

Zarifis said UNI did have more people in attendance at its homecoming but nothing was out of the ordinary. Olson also said homecoming weekend wasn’t atypical for the city police.

Deisinger said there are other variables that can affect statistics for a game, including time of day, weather, the visiting team, the number of police on staff, the number of people in attendance and the amount of tailgating space available to students.

The Ames Police Department was unavailable for comment on Monday.