The incident that followed the Red Sox win on Monday night, October 6, was a shameful display for which Plymouth State University stands ? not only for its students but for it?s community and its leaders as well.
As the Red Sox dug in to take the win on Monday, students gathered in small congregations in their dorms to celebrate and rub the win in Yankee fans? faces. The noise grew steadily and it was soon discovered that things were getting out of hand.
The mobs of people started at each dorm and as each mob, booted from their residence, ambled across the Plymouth State campus; they collected the other throngs of seemingly harmless celebrators, creating a significant number of people.
An hour after the smaller groups first started assembling, the students made Russell Street their final destination for debauchery and mayhem. In a shaming act of part of the student body, they acted out against the community, causing destruction and chaos.
The students displayed blatant disrespect for the university, community, and themselves. They are not the only ones that showed negligence though. Inadvertently, the campus leaders helped to create the incident by not foreseeing the possible outbreak beforehand.
The outburst could have been avoided or at least redirected if the community as a whole had understood the possibility for ?riot?. It is not uncommon for these sort of incidents to occur from sporting events. UNH has had its share of sports related mobs and Plymouth State students slighted the community in 2001 when the Patriots took the Superbowl.
Rioting is not unheard of in our community.
Why, then, did the administration, campus police, student body, or the community not express any concern beforehand? How is it that no one thought this could happen?
Yes the students acted in a shame-ful way, displaying a thoughtless sheep-mentality, but the neglect of our community as a whole should also be taken into account. No ex-cuses can be made for the actions of the people on Russell Street, but the blame is not entirely on their shoulders.
This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Student Summit on Responsible Student Celebrations at the University of New Hampshire. Big name players in attendance included Syracuse University, Michigan State University, and the University of Ohio. Plymouth State University was the smallest community to be represented at UNH this weekend. Our delegation included members of the Spring Fling Planning Committee, offices from both University and Plymouth Town Police, and advisors from Student Activi-ties. It was a great opportunity for us to share our success story, get a better perspective on national trends, and brainstorm ways to continue being proactive in preventing celebratory violence in the town of Plymouth for years to come.
I write today feeling misrepresented by a syndicated article printed in several New Hampshire newspapers on Sunday morn-ing. I was quoted by a reporter as saying that ?I don?t think there?s a solution.? On the contrary, I believe that there are several solutions, unique to each respective cam-pus community. What works for us in Plymouth will not necessarily work for in Durham. UNH has experi-enced a problem with an NCAA Di-vision I title game; a situation with which Plymouth will never have to deal. I was also quoted in the same article as saying that ?by not providing alcohol at (these) events, they?ve got 2,000 alumni showing up with their kids.? This was referencing a story shared by the University of Minnesota about their Frozen Four title game experience against UNH in April. We may have mountains, but I do not live in a cave up in Plymouth. These kinds of inconsistencies are frustrating and made me question credulity and intention of the article.
We have found the providing alcohol for those of legal age at our Saturday night event of Spring Fling weekend sets our students up for success in celebrating responsibly. I take a lot of pride in the way our student body responds, year-after-year, to privileges given by our school?s administration. Admission to this event is restricted to Plymouth State students and their guests. It would be silly for me to think that this model could be eas-ily applied to UNH. The nature of our event and strategy in providing a consumption area (which is lauded by the New Hampshire State Liquor Commission) at Spring Fling requires us to serve only the Plymouth State community. Something echoed by nearly every campus attending the summit was that the majority of people causing disruption at these events were non-students of the respective institutions. The size of our student body allows us to limit the size of out ?sponsored party.? A suggestion that UNH limit the size of their community on these weekends in an effort to limit the size of their problem would again be to not understand major differences between the two schools.
I admire student leaders at UNH for coming up with the creative solution of hosting a summit. I will continue to admire student leaders at UNH as they put their creative solu-tions (many of which were developed this weekend) into action in the coming months. The Plymouth State University student body is committed to supporting any initiative set forth by UNH to deter any future irresponsible celebration. To that end, it is my hope that student leaders at UNH will call on us if and when they anticipate the next potential riot situation. Student leaders at Plymouth State will make the trek to Durham to assist in programming- and we will certainly do it without the condition of whether or not alcohol is served.
Serving alcohol on campus, one night out of the year, was what more students from other schools wanted to engage with me about in conversation this weekend. The conversation continued outside the summit on Saturday morning with Charlie Knuth, University System Student Body (USSB) Representative for UNH, and a reporter. It should be known that I have nothing but the utmost respect for the University of New Hampshire?s administra-tion, student leaders, and their unique situation. To that end, I firmly believe that there are several initiatives that we can collaborate on as a University System to prevent future injury and embarrassment as a result of inappropriate large group behavior. By continuing to enforce our Plymouth State University ?Double Jeopardy? policy off-campus (both in the greater-Plymouth area and specifically at other institutions in New Hampshire), we can contribute to working towards a solution at our state?s flagship school.