Badger gamedays are one of the most treasured traditions here at UW-Madison, but it has come to this editorial board’s attention that the sudden enforcement of a seating policy may be threatening students’ ability to enjoy the games.
Over the past several weeks, The Daily Cardinal has heard a number of complaints from students saying they were ejected from Badger football games for sitting in the wrong seat, even if they were sitting in the correct section. These ejections were not based on behavioral or drinking violations, but solely due to students sitting in the incorrect seat.
We believe enforcing a policy where students must sit in their assigned seat is unrealistic and unfair to students.
While the official policy does in fact say students must sit in their assigned seats, police have never enforced this policy until this year. Police have only required students to sit in their assigned section, not specifically their assigned seat. Therefore, it is unfair to students to abruptly begin ejecting students for a policy that most don’t even know exists.
We understand police are concerned about overcrowding in the Camp Randall student section. However, continuing to enforce students sitting in their assigned section can reduce overcrowding sufficiently. First-come-first-serve seating within sections is a fair policy.
If there is a problem with overcrowding, event staff should figure out a more efficient way to make sure student traffic flows smoothly. We know UWPD increased its police force at Camp Randall for this year’s football games, but we were under the impression that this increase was necessary to deal with behavioral and alcohol related incidents, not to enforce an unnecessary and unknown rule.
Perhaps what bothers us most is that students had no idea UWPD began enforcing the official seating policy until the ejections began. UWPD should have taken the correct steps to warn students of the upcoming policy enforcement months before the football season began. They should have sent emails to students, asked the university to post a news release about the policy, or used any number of other techniques to alert students. Students should not suffer the consequences for UWPD’s utter absence of communication.
Furthermore, there seems to be inconsistency between the UWPD and event staff that work at Camp Randall on what the correct policy is. One of the complaints came from a student who said the event staff lead her to a seat that was not hers because her seat was occupied, which then led to her being ejected from the game by a UWPD officer. This student was removed from a Badger game for doing nothing more than sitting where event staff told her to sit.
There also seems to be inconsistency within the UWPD on what the correct rule is. UWPD Sgt. Aaron Chapin said, “If you’re not in that seat, you have the potential to be kicked out,” according to an Oct. 18 article in The Daily Cardinal. This is consistent with an email the athletic department sent to students Oct. 18, a month and a half after the season began, that said students are subject to removal for sitting in the wrong seat.
Yet at an Associated Students of Madison Town Hall safety meeting on Oct. 10, when asked if students are subject to removal for sitting in the wrong seat or just the wrong section, a UWPD officer responded “just the wrong section.”
We hope this miscommunication can be resolved efficiently and responsibly, and we expect UWPD to take the correct steps in the future to inform students of policy changes.
Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
