By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Students from the University of Pennsylvania will have a separate area to tailgate on Saturday outside Princeton Stadium for the Penn-Princeton football game and see added security, in response to the shenanigans by drunken Penn students at past games at Princeton.
The designated student tailgate area was announced by Princeton this week, before the 108th meeting on the gridiron of the two Ivy League rivals. Princeton spokesman John D. Cramer said Tuesday that the “new step” was to deal with “unruly behavior” by Penn students at football games between the two schools.
That misbehavior has included public urination, profanity and other “obnoxious behavior” that Princeton says continues inside the stadium once the game begins. An estimate of how many Penn students make the trip from Philadelphia was not available, but Princeton said it is a small percentage who engage in the drunken revelry.
Mr. Cramer said the university would have additional members of its Department of Public Safety on hand “to ensure we have coverage of all the various tailgate areas, including the new Penn area.”
The Princeton Police Department said this week that it would have six officers working the 12 p.m. game, a bigger presence than for games against other schools.
“Usually we have three officers; however, the Penn game is a larger crowd and Penn usually has a very strong student body that travels with the team, but not much has changed,” said police spokesman Lt. Jon Bucchere by email Tuesday. “The added police presence has more to do with being prepared for the crowd rather than anticipated problems.”
The Penn student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, this week broke the story about the new tailgate area and the added security for Saturday. In its coverage, the paper quoted from an email to members of a Penn sorority telling them Penn police would be checking buses bringing students to the game and arresting students if they are publicly intoxicated.
The problems with student misconduct does not happen when Princeton plays at Penn, with Princeton saying it has not had issues like these with any visiting schools’ fans except Penn’s. Penn plays at Princeton every even-numbered year, in a rivalry that began in 1876.
The head of Penn’s Office of Public Safety said this week that Penn students have, in the past, chartered buses to take them from Philadelphia to New Jersey for the game, with students consuming alcohol during the trip.
In 2014, new Penn athletic director M. Grace Calhoun attended the contest and was “appalled” at the students’ behavior, with Penn students literally falling off the buses, said Maureen S. Rush, vice president of Public Safety and Superintendent of the Penn Police Department.
“This is not what is representative of Penn,” Ms. Rush said in a phone interview.
She said Penn has taken steps that include working with the Pennsylvania State Police’s Bureau of Liquor Control and Enforcement and informing Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission, which regulates charter bus companies, that the companies were taking a risk by allowing underage drinking and transporting alcohol across states lines.
Princeton allows tailgaters to consume beer and wine but not hard alcohol, with no alcohol served inside the stadium, Mr. Cramer said. Campus security has the right to check for identification of tailgaters.
As for what happens if Penn students opt not to stay in their new tailgate area, Mr. Cramer said university security would “strongly encourage” them “to use the Penn area in an effort to ensure an enjoyable and safe experience for everyone.”
