Drinking and Rioting In Boulder

By

Emi Iwasaki

And

Kurt Simmons

Modification Notes

• This presentation now has four parts.

• It is being used to add topics to the end.

• Current sections:– Original Marketing class presentation– Whose Problem is it? Pages: 27-29– This has being going on for centuries: Page 30.– Historical Issues: Page 33.

Sneaky background ideas

• Class project has stalled• Lots of talk and little action• Most students will only do what is asked of them• If you want more done then ask more of them.

(Someone needs to be in charge)• Follow this document to add structure to class.

Break apart problem in any clear way and tackle it with gusto. You can always revise things later.

Problem Statement

• Boulder suffers from riots caused by out of control crowds of drinking students

• There is enormous political, social, and physical damage

• The community would like to find a solution

Revised Problem Statement

• Irresponsible drinking is a major part of the perceived problem.

• Our goal would be to encourage responsible drinking

• But…

Most of the drinkers are underage

• Legally the university cannot teach them to drink responsibly.

• They will drink anyway.• Worse still about 20-33% of them are

basically irresponsible anyway, not just when they are drunk.

• Therefore we revise the problem statement…

How do you teach responsible drinking to irresponsible, underage people you are

pretending are not drinking?

• Nothing direct is possible so you need indirect effects.

• Therefore a true understanding of the problem is needed.

• What are the major issues?

Major Issues

• What are common themes in riots?

• What are common themes in places where drinking appears to occur responsibly?

• How can we use this information to come up with a useful campaign?

Common Riot Issues

• What days and times did they occur?

• What was the nature of each crowd?

• Where did the rioting materials come from?

Date and Time ideas

• Do they all occur after bars are closed?– We need a better collection of late night

activities.

• Are there common days of the week?– Solutions only need to exist on those days.

Nature of the Crowd Ideas

• Is the whole crowd comprised of rowdy types?– You will need a whole crowd solution.

• Is is a few rowdy drunks?– Selective enforcement solutions might work.

• What is the crowd doing?– A sense of purpose or loitering.

• How does the mess unfold?– One problem gets out of hand or several problems

break out? Stop first problem or deal with several.

Where did rioting materials come from?

• Are people emptying dumpsters?– Have a community cleanup before the

weekend.

• Is it unwanted trash on lawns like sofas?– Have a free fall cleanup at the beginning of fall.

What other issues have you just though of?

• Blank slide for taking notes, now.

Summary

• We have defined many common themes in rioting situations.

• We now need to recall we wished to define common themes in non-riot type locations.

• For discussion purposed we will pick the one we know most, bars.

Why don’t bars have riots?

• Smart bartenders (People who know when to cut people off)

• ID Checks (Crowd regulation or filter)• They close (at some point the party ends)• Burly People at door. (Security presence to discourage

and regulate rowdiness)• Social activity (Pool tables, music, there is something to

occupy the minds of most people)• Structure environment (tables, chairs and drinking areas

encourage a structure to the environment that limits possibilities)

How do you take bar ideas and apply them to an open party?

• Have responsible process for dishing out alcohol?• End the party?• Switch to non-alcoholic beer after 2:00• Provide activities that small groups of people can

engage in.• Provide tables or other means to cluster people

into small social groups.– If bad things happens they might not join in.

New Section – Class tasks

• How do we tackle a problem with no starting point?– Go get a starting point from someone else– Create our own starting points and see what evolves

• We don’t know how much money we have to spend

• We don’t know what our plan can be until we have money.

• But amount of money defines the plan.

Funding and Plan Issues

• Whatever amount of money you are given you will spend it.

• If you have a really great plan you can always find someone to fund it

Confusion Reigns

MoneyAvailable

Cost of Plan

Each one limits or enhances the other

Two ways to do this

• Get a budget from someone and find the best plan you can think of.– You can always ask for just a little more money

• Get a budget gues and come up with four possible plans to decide upon.

• Build a grid of budgets (5K, 10K, 15K, 20K) and come up with four options at each level)– You can then pitch all options, vote on a couple to

focus on, or take common themes out and redo the process.

Grid of Ideas

Idea Amount

Contest Activity Promotion Education

$5,000

$10,000

$15,000

$20,000

Sample Idea

Why bars don’t have riots

How you can do this at your party

Bouncer Tiger that eats rowdy drunks

Closing Time Bring out non-alcoholic beer kegs at 2:00 a.m.

Social Activities Make whole floor a twister game

Responsible Party Ideas Poster

Other issues to discuss

• Market testing of ideas– Get some real good ideas or some real bad ideas and go

to dorms and get real feedback on them

• Find out what has already been tried.– Any existing solutions were dreamed up by uniformed,

fuddy-duddy adults. Gather those solutions and critique them. Take any ideas that survive and revise them into workable solutions.

Old Ideas With Merit

• Bring back 3.2 beer.

• Make it legal to drink 3.2 beer for 18 year olds.

• Have a drinking license. Pass a test and you can drink 3.2 beer in the dorms.

Systems Thinking Idea

• Systems thinking basically requires you to look at interactions between whole systems in order to truly understand a problem and arrive at truly effective solutions.

• As an exercise fill in all the blanks to prove the following assertion…

Total System Solution Exercise

• Construct a proof that riots on the hill are caused by boring, meaningless classes at CU.

• (Not that there are any, but see if you can connect the dots anyway.)

Whose problem is it?

The University has an image and safety concerns

The city has public safety concerns

Students have futures on the line

Students are closest to the problem

Changing youth behavior is hard without help from the youths themselves.

Therefore…

• Any effective solution will involve committed participation from the students themselves.– Does anyone know how to motivate students?– Students are know to respond to severe

penalties (bad grades as a motivation to study.)– Reward systems do not appear relevant here.

Where to next?

• More inquiry is probably needed– What is the real problem?– How can students be a major part of the

solution?– What do the powers that be really care about?– Is power point the best medium for analyzing

all this?

It’s All Been Done Before

• College students drink.

• They always have and always will.

• Moving out from home and testing yourself is a rite of passage.

• How can this rite be done in a safe way?

What is safe drinking?

• Knowing your limits?

• Not getting caught up in crowd mentalities.

• Not hurting other people.

• Having someone stop you if you have had enough.

• Drinking with people you can count on to keep you in line.

How do you learn safe drinking?

• Parents can teach you.

• Learn by example – exposure to responsible drinkers and drinking practices

• Practice and safe exploration

• ????

Historical Questions

• What is the history of rowdy drinking?

• What is the history of fun, safe drinking?

• What lessons can we learn from how things have been in the past?

What is the history of rowdy drinking?

• We have heard stories of tipping over cars and trollies.

• Volkswagons have been found in second floor offices.

• What are worst case scenarios from other college towns?

• What are worst case scenarios from non-college towns?

What is the history of fun, safe drinking?

• Some colleges have bonfires before their big games.

• English pubs carry a long history of social drinking? How do they handle out of control people? How do they learn to drink responsibly?

What are worst case scenarios from other college towns?

• Do they burn couches?

• Do they have riots in the streets?

• How are their fraternities, apartments, and bars distributed around town?

• What are their communities like? (vs. uptight, politically-correct, Socialist Republic of Boulder)

What are worst case scenarios from other non-college towns?

• Uranium requires a critical mass before a nuclear chain reaction can occur.

• So non-college towns have a lesser concentration of people/drinking establishments. (especially within walking distance. (Drivers might plan better.))

• What happens elsewhere?

What lessons can we learn from how things have been in the past?• Some things change. Some things stay the same.• Do we know what has changed and what is the

same?• Those same things can use the same answers we

learned in the past.• Knowing what has changed and what is different

enables us to modify existing solutions.