The new campus football stadium hasn’t yet broken ground, but students already are wondering about grilling brats and drinking brews on site.

Student representatives to the Board of Regents Luke Neuville and Joshua Colburn asked the board prior to a vote Thursday whether tailgating in campus parking lots at the new stadium would be allowed under the proposed alcohol policy changes.

Regents said they would compare tailgating and sales policies at other campus stadiums to the University’s in the future.

The board adopted policy changes Thursday afternoon, including an alcohol marketing and advertising ban from campus and University publications, which do not include the Daily, as well as a policy emphasizing the University’s commitment to alcohol education and counseling.

Under the new policy, University trademarks, trade names, service marks, logos, slogans, mascots and other official identifiers or symbols also are banned from use in alcohol advertising, promotion, marketing, distribution and sales.

New College of Design

The College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the department of design, housing and apparel merged to create the College of Design.

E. Thomas Sullivan, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said the board meant to enhance academic synergies through this year’s strategic planning, with College of Design Dean Thom Fisher providing a “perfect example.”

“Through this new college we can be a leader in design,” Sullivan said.

Fisher said he wanted the college to be among the top three design colleges in a public research university in the United States.

“We may already be there,” he said.

Human resources

Vice Chairwoman to the Board of Regents Patricia Simmons stressed the value of University employees in an opening statement to President Bob Bruininks and the Faculty, Staff and Student Affairs Committee.

“The University is only as good as its people,” Simmons said.

The committee met Thursday to discuss the progress of a three-year effort to review and improve the University’s human resources policies.

Kathryn Brown, vice president and chief of staff to the office of the president, said the policy language needed to be updated.

“The style and detail were administrative and operative,” Brown said, citing the language of some current policies dating to the 1930s.

Brown related the future of human resources policies with University realignment principles.

“Faculty and staff are keys to moving forward,” she said.

The University expects to hire 1,000 new faculty members within the next five years, two-thirds of whom will be replacement faculty members, said Carol Carrier, vice president of human resources.

With the average age of a University faculty member at 51, Carrier said, the University is in a position to create human resources “policies and practices that protect the whole person.”

“We need family-friendly and life-force-friendly faculty policies,” she said.

Carrier discussed plans to eliminate a two-year wait period for the faculty retirement program to create human resources policies that are attractive to faculty members, many of whom are being recruited in a highly competitive academic market.

The committee emphasized the importance of human capital to the University.

Regent John Frobenius said he wanted more emphasis placed on “growing our own” and employee recognition and rewards.

Regent Clyde Allen said he wanted “development opportunities for every worker, whether they are cutting grass or developing something.”