On Saturday at 7 p.m., the Grand Valley State University football team will go head-to-head with Notre Dame College at Lubbers Stadium in the Lakers’ first home game of the season.

With that in mind, Capt. Brandon DeHaan, assistant director of the Grand Valley Police Department, said students can expect an increased police presence before, during and after the football game.

The increased police force is a result of an annual grant of $13,000, awarded to GVPD by the Office of Highway Safety and Planning. Activation of the grant allows for university police to bring in officers from the Ottawa County Sherriff’s Department to aid GVPD to monitor underage drinking during events with a “greater likelihood of underage alcohol consumption.”

The grant pays OCSD officers time-and-a-half for their work plus regular benefits when activated. Event-oriented dates like the first week of school, home football games, St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween, to name a few, spur the activation of the grant.
“(The grant is activated often enough) to cover the vast majority of those event dates that have historically had a higher preponderance of underage drinking,” DeHaan said.

Per usual, tailgating for GVSU’s first home game will begin no more than three hours immediately before the scheduled kick-off, and within an hour of the game’s completion, in lots C, F and G. Alcohol consumption is prohibited throughout campus during the actual game itself, with the exception of the Corporate Suites and the President’s Suite.

GVSU’s tailgating policies explicitly state that any violation of tailgating regulations “may result in immediate termination of tailgating privileges and criminal prosecution or disciplinary action through the GVSU Office of Student Life.”

Police officers will be checking student IDs, DeHaan said, and added that officers gravitate toward those exhibiting “attention drawing behavior.”

“People engaging in criminal activity, assaultive behavior – people trying to run away from the officers…anything that draws attention to themselves,” DeHaan said.

Students consuming alcohol who are identified by officers as underage will be cited for minor in possession violations, referred to the Dean of Students Office and required to attend GVSU’s Alcohol Campus Education Services.

Parking in Lot C, F and G will cost patrons $5 per car and $20 for motor coaches/homes. Overnight parking is prohibited in any GVSU parking lot.

For more information on tailgating policies, look at www.gvsulakers.com.
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