The NIU Student Judicial Office doesn’t want to rain on the Homecoming weekend parade, but they’ll be out in force this weekend to keep problems at a minimum.

“I don’t want to put a damper on Homecoming,” said Judicial Office Director Larry Bolles. “I want the students and their guests to come up and enjoy the weekend.”

However, Bolles said he is anticipating the same difficulties this year as in the past—”mostly drunks and disorderlies,” and large numbers of visitors and parties.

“We’ve done a pretty decent job of attracting students from other schools,” Bolles said.

He said he wants to encourage visitors to come up and have a good time, as long as they follow “our rules.”

Bolles stressed that NIU students will be, as always, responsible for the actions of their guests.

One example of Homecoming fun going awry was when a student dropped a bowling ball through a food service ceiling a few years ago, Bolles said.

“I guess he wanted to see if Newton’s theories really worked,” Bolles said. “It ended up costing him about $5,000, though.”

Bolles and his staff will be walking around residence hall lobbies and the stadium on game day, Bolles said. “We’re out there to keep the campus safe,” he said.

The Judicial Office staff also will be in constant communication with both DeKalb and the University Police to keep abreast of happenings, Bolles said.

A typical problem is students propping open residence hall doors so their guests can come in and out, he said.

“We have fines for that, and they will be enforced,” Bolles said. “That’s how rapes occur and things get stolen.”

Bolles said the most important thing is that everybody has a “reasonably good time” this weekend.