Mount Pleasant residents help out tailgaters and questions the affects of new tailgating procedures

I just walked a CMU student home to his apartment.

He was a smart and polite kid. My wife found him lying in our yard at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. He didn’t know where he was, so I walked him the six blocks home, across High Street. It was a slow walk and he talked most of the way there. I was confident when I left him, he would be okay after a little nap and some time to sober up.

I wasn’t surprised to find his friends in pretty much the same shape. He shook my hand, thanked me profusely for getting him home and promised me that he would be smarter for the rest of the day.

This situation may be an unintended consequence of the new tailgating policy at CMU. Kyle and his friends should have been at the football game Saturday afternoon. If they had been at the tailgate and the football game, they would have been under observation of professionals instead of wondering around the neighborhood between downtown and campus.

While it may be more convenient for the CMU officials to try to enforce arbitrary standards for alcohol consumption within a specific tailgating area, is it really safer for the students and the neighborhoods?

I have walked kids such as Kyle home most falls for the 26 years we have lived in our neighborhood. I call the police when I think they are in danger. These kids are good people, but they are kids. They have to learn how to handle themselves and we should help them do that.

CMU is a great neighbor, a great institution and mindful of the safety of the students most of the time. I urge them to rethink and revisit the new tailgating policy. Make enough room for the tailgaters, make them keep their music under control and get enough personnel on hand to manage the situation. I think I’d rather have the f-rap south of the football field than blaring across Gaylord and Franklin.

Just one townie’s perspective.

Joe and Jenny McDonal
Mount Pleasant residents