Issue: SDSU Students’ Association and administration, dealing with circumstances beyond anyone’s control, are working hard to ensure students have tailgating for the first home football game of the year.

Over the summer, due to issues of capacity and safety, SA and administration agreed to create a tailgating student lot directly north of the Coughlin-Alumni Stadium lot. Unfortunately, due to construction issues and weather, the lot was deemed unusable for the first home game on Sept. 18.

Upon getting the news that the student lot would not be used, the Students’ Association jumped into action, passing a resolution calling for administration to take action in securing a new location for tailgating. Vice President of Student Affairs Marysz Rames said she would make calls late into the evening to Bob Otterson, executive assistant to the president, to get things figured out. The next morning a conference call was held among SA senators and important administrative figures, including Director of Athletics Justin Sell. It was decided that an area of the lot north of Frost Arena would be used for student tailgating.

We applaud the initiative and action taken by both the university and SA in looking out for students. They acted swiftly and with great concern for students’ tailgating experience.

However, while we think tailgating is fun, does not being able to tailgate for one game really warrant such an emergency-like response? It seems like the issue was blown out of proportion.

The tailgating policy has been a touchy subject over the years, but this is not a large policy change denying students the opportunity to tailgate. This is simply a case of things beyond control 8212; construction and rain 8212; getting in the way of one instance of tailgating.

While the solution was most likely a simple-enough remedy, it seems like there are more important things to be worrying about other than tailgating at one game. We’re not saying SA and the university should not have done what they did to solve the problem 8212; in fact we’re happy with the outcome. We simply wish more important things were given the same urgency and concern that tailgating was.

Stance: Not having tailgating for one game would not be the end of the world. We hope SA and the university act with the same passion, determination and urgency when it comes to more important issues.