All Quiet on the Campus Front
http://www.atomicsportsmedia.com/articles/653/1/All-Quiet-on-the-Campus-Front/All-Quiet-on-the-Campus-Front.html
Justin Culver
By Justin Culver
Published on 11/21/2006
After rioting led to dozens of arrests and significant damage four years ago, Atomic Sports columnist Justin Culver said Ohio State fans were on their best behavior after their big win over Michigan on Saturday.
After rioting led to dozens of arrests and significant damage four years ago, Atomic Sports columnist Justin Culver said Ohio State fans were on their best behavior after their big win over Michigan on Saturday.
All Quiet on the Campus Front
Well, it’s over. The ESPN proclaimed “Game of the Century” is finished and in the aftermath of one of the greatest rivalries of all time, the Ohio State University campus is not a burning mess. No couches ablaze long into the night, no smashing of local venders’ windows on High Street. You can turn on the daily news and not see negative reports of the happenings at The Ohio State University, and frankly, that makes me smile.
The university did nearly everything in its power to prevent a repeat of the 2002 Michigan game, where Ohio State was in the lime light not for its football prowess, but for the violence and ignorance of its fans, who used the opportunity to play in the national championship as an excuse for burning dumpsters across campus, flipping cars, sexually harassing women, and destroying properties throughout the university area. The entire nation got to see how a single sports event could turn into one of the biggest riots the university had ever seen. It was so bad in fact, that I actually took a course on what policies should be in place to prevent further rioting from occurring after big games. HDFS 694, or riot prevention 101, turned out to be a very interesting course and clearly showed what issues the university had to deal with to prevent any such occurrence from happening again. The main issues were fuel for the fires, and the issue of preventing parties from getting out of control, both of which were addressed this year.
As far as fuel for the fire, literally, Ohio State went so far as to empty every dumpster on campus on Thursday and Friday before the game, thus eliminating the fuel. The university also went so far as to institute a parking ban on six to eight streets from Friday evening until Sunday morning, thus removing many of the vehicles from areas where the rioting occurred four years ago. Before that ban was put into effect, the university towed all vehicles from those streets to the West Campus parking lot, where they would be kept free of charge until the end of the weekend, keeping them safe and away from any potential problems.
As far as party size was concerned, you couldn’t walk more than a block without passing a trio of police officers and a police cruiser. The university took a very aggressive stance in not allowing parties to spill into the streets and to attempt to prevent any fighting or rioting from occurring. This approach proved to be very effective, as fewer people were arrested this year than four years ago. I might also add that many of the people who were arrested four years ago were not Ohio State students, but friends of students and alumni. Without statistics being available this year, I cannot comment on the ratio of students to non-students, but I feel that there would be less students than friends of students being arrested.
Overall, Ohio State fans should be very proud of themselves. They were able to celebrate a tremendous victory with relative class and limited disturbances. The University should be proud that they were able to implement a plan of action that was able to allow the students to enjoy their triumph without breaking the law too much and they were able to keep everything from going into disarray. For all of these reasons, I am proud to be a member of this great institution, and everyone else should be as fortunate as I.
The university did nearly everything in its power to prevent a repeat of the 2002 Michigan game, where Ohio State was in the lime light not for its football prowess, but for the violence and ignorance of its fans, who used the opportunity to play in the national championship as an excuse for burning dumpsters across campus, flipping cars, sexually harassing women, and destroying properties throughout the university area. The entire nation got to see how a single sports event could turn into one of the biggest riots the university had ever seen. It was so bad in fact, that I actually took a course on what policies should be in place to prevent further rioting from occurring after big games. HDFS 694, or riot prevention 101, turned out to be a very interesting course and clearly showed what issues the university had to deal with to prevent any such occurrence from happening again. The main issues were fuel for the fires, and the issue of preventing parties from getting out of control, both of which were addressed this year.
As far as fuel for the fire, literally, Ohio State went so far as to empty every dumpster on campus on Thursday and Friday before the game, thus eliminating the fuel. The university also went so far as to institute a parking ban on six to eight streets from Friday evening until Sunday morning, thus removing many of the vehicles from areas where the rioting occurred four years ago. Before that ban was put into effect, the university towed all vehicles from those streets to the West Campus parking lot, where they would be kept free of charge until the end of the weekend, keeping them safe and away from any potential problems.
As far as party size was concerned, you couldn’t walk more than a block without passing a trio of police officers and a police cruiser. The university took a very aggressive stance in not allowing parties to spill into the streets and to attempt to prevent any fighting or rioting from occurring. This approach proved to be very effective, as fewer people were arrested this year than four years ago. I might also add that many of the people who were arrested four years ago were not Ohio State students, but friends of students and alumni. Without statistics being available this year, I cannot comment on the ratio of students to non-students, but I feel that there would be less students than friends of students being arrested.
Overall, Ohio State fans should be very proud of themselves. They were able to celebrate a tremendous victory with relative class and limited disturbances. The University should be proud that they were able to implement a plan of action that was able to allow the students to enjoy their triumph without breaking the law too much and they were able to keep everything from going into disarray. For all of these reasons, I am proud to be a member of this great institution, and everyone else should be as fortunate as I.