Almost a strong story with good reporting and strong structure, but you'll see the big problem here, among a number of little issues here ...
11/22/13
Out-of-Class Story #3
The Impact of Tailgating
On
any college game day, COMMA, STED
SEMICOLON thousands of football fans flood to Michigan State University’s
campus with their over-sized tents, gas grills, big HYPHEN HERE screen televisions, and trailers.
According
to MSU Landscape Services Manager Sean O’Connor, the campus typically sees
about 100,000 HYPHEN HERE plus
visitors every football Saturday. With
such a large number of people coming to campus for every game, the need for liter
MISSPELLED WORD; LITTER, STED LITER control
and signs of landscape damage have become common issues.
“This
is a kind of phenomenon that has grown within the last 15 to 20 years,” Paul
Swartz, MSU Campus Arborist COMMA HERE.
PLUS, CAMPUS ARBORIST IS LOWER CASE IN THIS INSTANCE said. “The tailgating
has really kicked in. It’s just become this huge party.”
A
BETTER TELLING QUOTE OR A SECONDARY QUOTE HERE MIGHT ELABORATE ON WHAT SORT OF
LITTER/DAMAGE THEY’RE SEEING
One
season ticket-holder and MSU alum, Theresa Pichette, said that she has seen a
change in tailgating since graduating in 1985, despite a few similarities from
previous years.
“It’s
always been a kind of production but now it’s become more of an all HYPHEN HERE day thing,” Pichette
said. “People get more into it. They bring all kinds of fancy food and there
are more coolers and merchandise everywhere.”
A
more elaborate tailgating affair amongst students and fans has made for an
increased need for campus clean HYPHEN
HERE up by landscape services.
“When
I first came here we did not do anything other than clean up after the football
games,” Swartz said. “We didn’t do anything pre-game or during the game itself
to control the liter.” *** FATAL FACT
ERROR: LITTER, STED LITER. MISSPELLINGS WITHIN QUOTES THAT CHANGE THE MEANING
OF THE QUOTE ARE AUTOMATIC FATALS ***
Now
MSU Landscape Services Coordinator Fred Kester said he and six others arrive
five hours before the EACH, STED THE
game begins to hand out trash bags to tailgaters, in an effort to control the
liter. MISSPELLED WORD; LITTER, STED
LITER
“It’s
something they have been accustomed to and even look forward to a lot of
times.” Kester said. “A lot of them take
our bags to away games for tailgating, so that has been good.”
It
is not until the following morning and all of the fans have left, in which the
true damage can be seen, according to landscape services.
Paul
Harper is one MSU Landscape Services group leader who takes part in the clean HYPHEN HERE up every Sunday after the
football games.
“We
start at about 7:30 in the morning at the tennis courts because it tends to be
the worse area with the most trash,” Harper said. “From there we break off into
five different zones.”
According
to Harper, it typically takes around five hours for him and his crew of over 50
people to clean up a tailgating mess, with the exception of the University of
Michigan game, which tacked on an additional five hours.
“It’s
kinda disheartening, not only to see all of the trash but also to see all of
the turf torn up,” Harper said. “We work hard to keep things healthy and to see
things get obliterated over night is sad.”
But
the damage that is done to campus doesn’t stop at the trash, PERIOD, STED COMMA; THEN, START NEW
SENTENCE HERE the wear and tear of tailgating has also taken a toll on its
physical structure, according to MSU Landscape Services.
“My
biggest thing is the compaction of soil around the root system of the trees and
that’s damage doesn’t show up for a few more years,” Swartz said. “It won’t be
another five years or so until the trees actually suffocate.”
According
to Swartz, as people drive over certain areas of the turf to tailgate, the soil
is compacted, limiting the amount of oxygen and moisture that can get to the
roots of the trees COMMA HERE ending
in permanent damage.
Similarly,
Kester said other tailgaters have been known to actually defoliate and tear
down branches of trees to make for a better tailgating spots.
“Some
have actually carved out areas so that they can put their pop HYPHEN HERE up tents beneath the shade
of the tree,” Kester said.
It
is for these reasons that different areas have been by roped off and signs have
been placed around campus turf, according to MSU Landscape Services SEMICOLON HERE and the amount of time in which people can
tailgate has been limited, according to Harper.
“Basically
north of the river is where tailgating should only take place on where it is
concrete,” Kester said. “They’re allowed put their tents up but they aren’t
allowed to park on the grass.”
Despite
these set boundaries, however COMMA HERE
there are still those who choose not to abide by the guidelines set by
landscape services, according to Swartz.
“The
way I look at is if you had a bunch of friends coming to your house for a party,
they wouldn’t drive up on your lawn or break the branches of your trees,”
Swartz said. “Why do people think that it’s okay to do here?”
Although
the total cost of harm that has been done is difficult to pin point, PINPOINT IS ONE WORD O’Connor said that
for the U of M U. OF M., STED U OF M
game alone, there was about 20,000 dollars $20,000, STED 20,000 DOLLARS, PER AP STYLE worth of damage done to the
landscape, not including the trees that may need to be replaced in the future.
“We
don’t really have a funding source so there’s no money really set aside for the
repair of damage,” O’Connor said. “Sometimes it’s parking that is charged and
sometimes it’s the athletic department themselves.”
As
a whole, Swartz said that the reason behind taking so much care into saving the
campus is because it is just too beautiful to trash six times a year.
“And
we know a lot of students mention that one of the main reasons why they come to
Michigan State is because of the beautiful campus,END QUOTE MARKS HERE Kester
said. “So the more consciousness we can create within the student population,
the better off we’re going to be.”
MSU
sophomore Sarah Kort said although she is guilty of taking tailgating on campus
COMMA HERE she would hate to see the
actions of others hurt it’s ITS’, STED
IT’S aesthetics.
“That’s
what nice about MSU, it’s secluded from the city with really nice landscape,”
Kort said. “I wouldn’t want it to become more urban looking like other
campuses.”
Word Count: 983
Sources:
Sean O’Connor
Landscape Services, Manager
(517)-355-7750
Fred Kester
Landscape Services, Coordinator
(517)-884-2324
Paul Swartz
Landscape Services, Campus Arborist
(517)-884-2322
Paul Harper
Landscape Services, Group Leader
(517)-896-2261
Theresa Pichette
MSU alum/tailgater
(586)-337-0395
Sarah Kort
MSU, Student
(586)-321-0436
ASSIGNMENT GRADE: 1.0 (1
FACT FATAL)
INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS: NICE
JOB OF REPORTING AND ORGANIZATION, BUT SOME AP STYLE AND GRAMMATICAL PROBLEMS,
AND THE FACT FATAL CANNOT BE OVERLOOKED. PLEASE MAKE SURE WE ARE DOING OUR DUE
DILIGENCE REGARDING THE BASICS: LET’S DOUBLE-CHECK OUR FACTS, USE SPELL CHECK
AS A SUPPLEMENT TO BUT NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR CHECKING THINGS FACT-BY-FACT; AND
LET’S BE SURE TO FOLLOW AP STYLE RULES.
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