Last fall, the Offices of the Dean of Student's introduced Show and Blow,"" a program intended to curb excessive drinking by students on Badger football game days.
Noble in its intent, Show and Blow required all students previously arrested for belligerent behavior at Camp Randall to take a Breathalyzer test upon entering the stadium for the remainder of the season. To enter, previously cited fans under 21 needed to blow a .00, while those of age needed to register below the legal limit of .08.
Adherence to Show and Blow was largely based on the honor system, but the DOS office recently announced the program will return this fall with a concerning addition to their existing policy.
Whereas before the program had been tied to the cited individual, it will now electronically monitor ""Show and Blow"" students by tagging their student ticket voucher. That means if someone buys a ticket from a student previously ejected from a game, they'd be forced to comply with the program. If a student sells a ticket to someone who then goes to a game and is cited, that season ticket holder would be submitted to a Breathalyzer before the season's remaining games.
One can easily imagine a scenario where a senior - who's had tickets the past three years but wasn't drawn in the now infamous lottery - buys an Ohio State ticket from a student already in the Show and Blow program, unaware the ticket has been tagged. That of-age senior might then go to a bar before the game, have three or four beers and - still in complete control - blow above a .08. What then happens at the Camp Randall gates?
The senior is out of luck and out of the $100 or more spent on the voucher.
Officials discourage the re-selling of student vouchers, but how realistic is that? This year's new ticket lottery system has left a lot of loyal, upperclassmen ticket-holders without vouchers. Of course they'll be scrambling to buy tickets from others.
In the future, the DOS should enact policy to help ensure both responsible behavior and protection of die-hard fans who lose the lottery. Scanning student IDs would act as a way to track whether those receiving vouchers are actually using their tickets at the games and ensure that the students buying secondhand tickets are not blamed for others' poor behavior.
The DOS rightfully needs to encourage responsible behavior at games, but reconsidering their expectations for of-age spectators is a necessity. Cheering for the home team at a football game requires much less coherence than driving, and of-age fans in this program should be allotted more leniency.
