Some University of Oregon student attendees from the 2023 football season allege “profiling” and numerous physical altercations between students and school-sponsored alcohol monitors.
BEST Crowd Management, a division of the GardaWorld corporation, is the company hired by UO to provide a variety of crowd management services to UO events — including football games.
Alcohol monitors are staff members tasked with ensuring students who enter Autzen stadium are not in possession of alcohol. They also enforce a zero-tolerance alcohol policy within the student section, regardless of a students’ age.
After the University announced it would expand alcohol sales at Autzen Stadium in 2018, UO also promised it would hire numerous additional “alcohol monitors.”
“The number of alcohol monitors on the game-day staff will be significantly increased to allow for increased vigilance regarding binge drinking, underage drinking, and potential incidents,” the 2018 announcement read.
Despite the increase of crowd management staff from more than five years ago, some students report that rule enforcement in the 2023 season was substantially stricter than they had seen in prior seasons.
“This year, they started with a way higher intensity than last season,” UO sophomore Joey Barbey said.“They do full on pat-downs sometimes to students. The workers are more aggressive with their stops and they eject students constantly.”
Barbey said he only witnessed two students ejected from Autzen last year. He saying, “This year the moment you’re seen with something [contraband] they eject you for the rest of the season”
Barbey believes that the September 2022 incident in which UO students chanted anti-Mormon statements during a football game between UO and BYU is what encouraged tighter enforcement of alcohol rules. “ The Oregon student section chanted “f—the Mormons” and [UO] has had the student section under lockdown ever since,” he said.
Other alcohol measures in place include requiring students to show their waistline is free of contraband at admission, to ensure no student is smuggling alcohol into the game.
Barbey said that alcohol monitors unfairly “profile” certain individuals to further search for alcohol at the gate, particularly by profiling what an individual wears.
Barbey says he typically wears sunglasses, a hat and jewelry to football games, which he claims he was discriminated against for citing what he said were extensive pat downs and searches that other students he was with were not subjected to.
“Last game, they had me take off my shoes and felt my socks, [before] checking my waist band. Only to walk seven feet further and be stopped again by another person as if I wasn’t just searched,” Barbey said. “My friends and girlfriend all walked by without having to do as much as spin in a circle showing their pockets are flat.”
Senior Associate Athletics Director of Communications at UO, Jimmy Stanton, denied that there had been any policy change regarding student section admission or enforcement in the off season before the 2023 season.
Stanton said in an email statement to the Daily Emerald that, “We have several procedures in place regarding entry, Duck Sports Pass holders who claim tickets have their ID checked at the gate, and that’s where they receive a wristband that is required to enter the student section, a protocol that has been in place for many years.”
Barbey said he once attempted to enter the student section of Autzen, but was physically pushed back from the entrance by an alcohol monitor. The monitor allegedly then required Barbey to empty his coat pockets while a second monitor “cornered” him against the wall to prevent him from leaving.
“It was as if I committed a crime,” Barbey said.
Another student, senior Audrey Schelemmer, said they had witnessed a physical altercation this past season when a friend of Schldmmer who was attending the game ignored an alcohol monitor who asked to see her student section wrist band. When she kept walking Schlemmer said that the alcohol monitor grabbed the student in an effort to remove her wristband.
“He [the alcohol monitor] grabs her, he wraps both arms around her and with his other hand is trying to grab this wristband out of her hands,” Schlemmer said
According to Schlemmer, the student was able to pull away from the monitor and avoid further incident. It was a situation Schlemmer described as “absolutely bonkers.”
Similar to Barbey’s experiences, Schlemmer also said to have witnessed profiling by crowd management staff at games. In this particular instance, the alcohol monitors allegedly conducted racial profiling, according to Schlemmer.
Schlemmer said that their Black friend was searched by numerous monitors for alcohol — while Schlemmer was able to walk past monitors.
“[As] I am a conventionally pretty, white, female presenting person, my guy [the alcohol monitor Schelmmer encountered at the gate] was like, ‘just go ahead,’ and [there was] no harassment,” Schlemmer said. “Whereas my friend, a tall Black man, it was not the same case for him…and his treatment by the alcohol staff in the student section was markedly different.”
Barbey and Schlemmer both claim to have reported the respective incidents to UO. Schlemmer said they contacted the UO Dean of Students Office following the Oregon vs Oregon State rivalry game, to share their concerns regarding long unorganized lines and the physical altercation they witnessed.
The UO Dean of Students, Marcus Langford, apologized for the bad experience in his email back to Schlemmer and said he would forward the complaint to the UO athletic department.
However, Stanton stated that UO athletics has never received a complaint regarding allegations of physical altercation between students and crowd management services in either 2023 or prior seasons.
In an email statement to the Daily Emerald Stanton said, “We have not received any reports to this effect, either in 2023 or in past years. If anyone does have specific details, we would appreciate them contacting our events office. Our goal is always to provide the safest possible environment for all in attendance.”
When the Emerald interviewed Schlemmer, they were surprised to learn that their complaint allegedly never reached UO athletics, and accused UO athletics claim of not receiving any complaints of being “very not true.”
In an email statement to the Emerald, GardaWorld, the company responsible for hiring all alcohol monitors at UO football games, also claim to never have received a complaint regarding a staff member at the Eugene location.
“Monitors are prohibited from using any sort of physical force in the course of their duties. Should we identify inappropriate behavior on the part of any member of our team that is not aligned with our policies, we will attempt to correct such behavior through verbal communication,” the statement read. “Any serious violations are reported and turned over to the University of Oregon police department.”
Regardless of if there has been any change in enforcement, Barbey said that he is starting to avoid sports events altogether due to negative experiences with staff.
“I have not been too into basketball this season. I’ve had enough bad experiences at the football games to minimize attending school sporting events,” Barbey said.
* The Daily Emerald reached out to the “Pit Crew,” UO’s student section leadership, who did not respond for comment.
