Sacramento State’s marching band may not attend some future Causeway Classic football games after several band members reported suffering abuse from rowdy University of California, Davis fans at Hughes Stadium last Saturday.

According to some accounts, the Davis crowd was so disorderly and their comments were so foul that many Sacramento State students feared for their safety.

“We were afraid to leave the stadium alone,” said senior Jodie Hughes, president of Sac State’s band. “Some students were even harassed while they were loaded up equipment after the game.”

Jeff Edom, director of Sac State’s athletic bands, said that he intends to send a strong letter to the UC Davis athletic director, laying out concerns about what he considers a security lapse at last weekend’s game.

If he isn’t assured that Davis safety measures will be tightened in 2004, he will opt out of taking the band to perform. “My students were placed in an unsafe situation,” Edom said Monday. “If we can’t be sure of safety, I’m not sure how I can take them back again.”

According eyewitness accounts, the raucous pro-Aggie crowd berated and spit on the band for several minutes as they waited to take the field at halftime.

Several women reported that men in the crowd, some close enough to touch, screamed epithets, calling them “whores” and “sluts.”

Some curses included references to oral sex and prostitution.Band Vice President Heather Ruden said that despite the insults and spitting, the band didn’t break ranks.

“We didn’t do anything in retaliation,” she said. “And we didn’t see any police.”

Although Hughes Stadium is closer to Sac State than Davis, the Aggies were considered the home team, which meant UC Davis police assumed responsibility for crowd control.

Next year, Sacramento State’s police force will be in charge of security when the Hornets play host.

UC Davis spokesman Paul Pfotenhauer had not heard of any incidents, noting that their campus police reported only a handful of arrests for being drunk in public.

“I just know that there were three alcohol-related arrests, and I don’t even know if those were our people, your (Sac State) people, or if they weren’t even students,” he said. “I didn’t get any reports of unusual behavior at the game.”

Pfotenhauer said while such incidents are regrettable–and happen on both sides–he doubted that the police would arrest anyone or even issue a report.

“It’s probably not a police issue. It sounds more like a Student Affairs issue,” he said.

UC Davis and Sac State use their offices of Student Affairs to issue warnings, sanctions and probation for student violations of campus rules.

Student Affairs actions do not carry the legal weight of a formal arrest or conviction in open court.

But Edom wants assurances that future games hosted by the Aggies will have better crowd control. He says that the behavior of people attending games is worse than ever, especially when Davis handles security.

“I have never felt unsafe in our stadium, and I don’t think the Davis band has ever felt unsafe here,” he said.