The Responsible Behavior Initiative, a Campus Police program to promote positive behaviors across campus, may expand to other campus organizations, according to Lt. Rick Potts.

“We’re getting a lot of cooperation from other organizations,” he said.

Because many students’ only interaction with police is because of negative actions, Potts said the effort is to provide a positive outlet of communication.

“The more that we can communicate with one another in a positive way, the better we get along and the better the community will be,” he said.

RBI has a budget of approximately $3,500, which Potts said comes from Student Affairs and Business and Finance.

As part of the program, police officers distribute certificates and bracelets to students who display behaviors like cleaning up a tailgating site, providing alternatives to alcohol during tailgating sessions or being a designated driver, Potts said.

“Every year now, there’s more and more people looking to want one of those little bracelets,” he said.

According to Potts, the committee that regulates RBI must decide how citations are printed, and how to make signs and brochures to promote the initiative.

The committee includes members of Campus Police as well as other University departments, Potts said.

The InterResidence Council will join the program, he said, and students can inform RBI officials if there is someone deserving of an award.

“We get their information and then we have a certificate, called an RBI citation,” he said.

Ashe Exum, a junior in nuclear engineering, said the program might not have much impact on how students behave.

“If you’re going to be a designated driver, you’re going to continue to be a responsible person,” he said. “If you’re not responsible, you will continue to be irresponsible.”

Potts said the idea for the program came from a similar program at Iowa State.

“At football games, we started talking to the fraternities in the parking lots,” he said. “The more we communicated with one another, the easier it was for us to get things accomplished.”

Potts created the Red Pig award, one that rewards fraternities for responsibility.

Peter Barnes, a member of Sigma Pi fraternity, which was a runner-up to Farmhouse last year for the Red Pig, said the initiative has improved fraternities’ relationships with Campus Police.

“Fraternities and the police, until just recently, never got along,” he said. “I think that the fraternities are taking it very seriously this year because it’s allowing us to get a little bit more freedom.”

In tailgating situations now, Barnes said the police understand that the fraternity is instituting the University’s standards on its members.

“If we mess up, they can come in,” he said. “But they’re allowing us to self-regulate.”

According to Barnes, Sigma Pi works to make sure its members are behaving on the tailgate field.

While Barnes said police are enforcing rules all over the parking lots, but they now have less to worry about in Sigma Pi’s area.

“I think a lot of people cared about it in our fraternity,” he said. “It’s become a cornerstone of how we plan our activities and our standards.”