Warm spring weather brings Ohio University students out to campus greens to relax and have fun -but they have limits on the sports and games they can play.

Before students begin crowding onto greens, they need to consider the safety of their actions, said Chris Reghetti Feyler, assistant director of residence life for West Green.

Because campus buildings are so close together and the greens have a lot of pedestrian traffic, concerns arise over some student activities, said Jim Sand, acting assistant director of residence life for East Green.

On East Green, residence life and faculty members ask students to refrain from playing lacrosse, golf and baseball, Sand said. Before these regulations were enacted eight years ago, students were allowed to use only Nerf balls and frisbees on East Green.

In addition to asking students to steer clear of these sports on greens, OU also asks students not to slide in the mud or play mud sports because such activities ruin the grass and make OU unsightly, Sand said.

Even though not all of the campus greens have the same rules, the same safety concerns are present campus wide, Feyler said. Residence Life and OU faculty recommend students look out for their safety and the safety of others by not taking part in dangerous activities on the greens.

"People can have fun, but we need to remind people that there can be dangers and that may mean having to ask someone to move or stop what they are doing," Feyler said.

On South Green, signs are posted forbidding sports and inline-skating on the catwalks, but there is no posted policy that applies to the grassy areas, said Frank Robinson, assistant director of residence life for South Green.

"That doesn't mean that anything goes," he said. "The principle is safety and respect for others."

For students on West Green, buildings are closer together and there are no specific regulations on activities, but students are asked not to play games that require lots of space, Feyler said.

Although residence life asks that students refrain from playing sports that could be a safety hazard, they have no formal policy on how to enforce such rules, Feyler said. If students are disruptive, both faculty and students can ask them to move their game to another location, Feyler said.

"If someone were deliberately trying to cause a problem, then that could be addressed in a more formal kind of way," she said.