It was in this moment Dang decided she wanted to become a director for Union Board. Now, as body and mind director, Dang has continued programming alcohol-free tailgates for UB, in conjunction with Residence Hall Association, and helped the IU Student Association start its own sober tailgate.
Union Board/RHA and IUSA will both have tents Saturday in the red lot within the tailgating fields.
“The idea of the IUSA tailgate came from Union Board,” said Paul Yoon, marketing co-chief for IUSA. “We were inspired by what they were doing and we wanted to represent sober tailgate culture as the student government as well.”
The Union Board/RHA tent will be campfire-themed with a s’more-making area, caricature artist and hot chocolate bar in addition to food and water. The IUSA tent will have food and water as well, plus a balloon artist.
Dang said there are three main goals for having a sober tailgate. For one, it provides a safe environment for students to enjoy alcohol-free activities. It also provides food and water to students, which Dang said is a part of the alcohol-free environment.
“Our mentality is if students eat a sandwich and have a drink, that might take 15 or 20 minutes, so that’s 15 to 20 minutes that the students are not drinking,” Dang said.
The third goal, Dang said, is to shift the culture surrounding tailgates. She said she feels IU tailgates are known for binge-drinking by students who often do not even attend the game, but she said she hopes this could change.
“We realize that this will take a long time, but with consistent, high-quality programming, we believe that in the next 10 years that the culture can change,” Dang said.
Union Board started having sober tailgates last year. This weekend’s tailgate will be the third and final Union Board sober tailgate for the semester.
Yoon said the marketing team decided to have a sober tailgate to promote a safe environment at tailgates. He said the tailgate will also serve to raise IUSA’s visibility.
“The brand recognition isn’t really there compared to organizations like IUDM,” Yoon said. “We really want to be reaching out to students in places where they really have a good time, so they recognize us in the future.”
Union Board and IUSA will use their tailgates to survey students about future programming and policy initiatives, respectively.
Yoon said having survey data from students backs up IUSA’s proposals when presented to administration, so IUSA can say with evidence that it is advocating for what students think or want.
Dang said sober tailgates make sense as Union Board programming because it can appeal to students from a variety of demographics and because it shows students there are things to do besides drinking alcohol.
“We want to be able to provide thought-provoking programs for campus that allow students to have a different experience,” Dang said. “This is different than the norm of a typical tailgate.”
