Police report least active Western Weekend in decades
A shirtless fan points to the camera on Oct. 20 at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
As hard as it might be to believe, there was something emptier than the stands of Kelly/Shorts Stadium during this year's Western Weekend: Central Michigan University Police Department's crime log.
"I can say safety that in the entire time I've been at this university, this was probably the lightest Western Weekend we've seen," said Lt. Cameron Wassman, public information officer for the CMUPD, who has worked at CMU for 18 years.
The police department recorded a total of eight violations — four citations and four arrests — associated with the football game between the Central Michigan Chippewas and Western Michigan Broncos on Oct. 20. The violations included:
- Two citations for violation of controlled substances
- One arrest for drunk driving
- One citation for minor-in-possession, and one arrest
- One citation for disorderly conduct
- One arrest for disorderly conduct
- One arrest for resisting/obstructing police
This is a dramatic decrease from previous years where the annual game was played at Kelly/Shorts Stadium: 30 violations were recorded in 2012, 28 in 2014 and 37 in 2016.
Wassman said he would like to believe the decrease in criminal activity might be due to students behaving more responsibly and following the rules more than previous years, though he admits the weather plays a part in the decrease.
The less active Western Weekend continues a pattern of decreased student activity this year, following another historic downturn in student turnout during Welcome Weekend. Wassman expects to see a similar situation during the upcoming Halloween festivities — parties are wilder when they coincide with weekends, and the holiday falls on a Wednesday this year.
