OSU students say they don’t know if there will be violence or not following this Saturday’s Ohio State – Michigan game.

“I hope it will be peace. I feel pretty safe.”

“I don’t think there will be riots because everybody knows there will be stiff penalties.”

“I hope it’s good. I don’t know whether it will be good or not. People will probably riot. Last year wasn’t bad, I don’t think.”

Officials hope to head off the kind of rioting that occurred in 2002 when fans overturned and set fire to cars and furniture in the streets near campus. Columbus public safety director Mitchell Brown says that sort of violence will not be tolerated again.

“I’m not going to go into all the details, but I can assure you that individuals that act inappropriately and chose to be disruptive, all you need to do is look around, look over your shoulder and there will be a Columbus police officer who will be prepared to deal with the problem.”

Mayor Coleman urged fans not to tarnish Columbus’s image. He asked them to celebrate “a victory with class.” OSU Vice President for Student Affairs Rich Hollingsworth said he’ll be emailing students this week reminding them to obey the law and the code of student conduct or face suspension from school. The university is also running a new “Best Fans in the Land” ad campaign. The spots include personalities like Archie Griffin urging a sportsman-like approach to the game.

Two-time Buckeye Heisman winner Archie Griffin: I’ve played a little football in the Shoe and I can tell you that a championship team needs championship fans. Screaming fan: O! H! Buckeye captain Troy Smith: Thanks for cheering us on. Screaming crowd: O! H! Former Buckeye track star Stephanie Hightower: Let’s make the team and city… Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman: … proud of us. Cheer loud. (Fans cheering) Men’s basketball coach Thad Matta: No matter what the sport… Griffin: Cheer for the team, not against the opponent Crowd: Go Bucks! Basketball player Stephanie Blanton: Make our guests feel welcome.”

Some students say they think authorities will have their hands full. Art majors Erin Kolsky and Alden Byrd.

“There will probably be riots regardless of whether they win or lose,” Kolsky said.

“Alcohol plays a huge part of that,” Byrd added.

Kolsky says she thinks the presence of police will be the most significant deterrent.

“The police in the riot gear, with the shields, and the horses, I think the riot gear police is going to be the most effective.”

City officials acknowledged that there were communications problems between the Fire Prevention Bureau and the Building Services Division – the city agencies that inspect construction projects. But an attorney hired by the city for a year-long review said she found very few instances where inspections by the fire prevention bureau were not performed.

“Of the 30 missed inspections, we found that five were done exactly as they were supposed to be done, and with 25 of them, there were some miscommunication issues that caused it either to be a “miss” or to appear as if it were a “miss.”

Public Safety Director Mitchell Brown says the city is working to improve communications between the two city departments. The payment of overtime to bureau inspectors had also been called into question. But Brown said the Columbus police had earlier found no criminal wrong-doing. It was instead, he said, a lack of clearly understood procedure.

“It’s important to note that we’ve had an evaluation whether or not there was any criminal wrongdoing. And we found there was none. Once we take a look at this report that Ms. Krivda has provided for us, we’ll review it. If there was any administrative wrongdoing we’ll deal with that.”

Independent investigator Pamela Krivda says she found no evidence of gender or race discrimination as alleged by the bureau’s battalion chief Yolanda Arnold. But Mitchell Brown acknowledged there were management difficulties within the Fire Prevention Bureau, partly due, he said, to to poor interpersonal communications.