MOB RIOTS IN EAST LANSING AFTER MICHIGAN STATE FALLS IN NCAA BASKETBALL
TOURNAMENT

Michigan State University and the City of East Lansing vowed Sunday to
punish students and others involved in an all-night rampage that
included 61 fires and numerous acts of vandalism near the campus this
weekend.

"It is my intention to take strong action for both on- and off-campus
crimes," said M. Peter McPherson, president of the university. "All
those found to have endangered the health and safety of our community
will be punished to the fullest extent of the rules and the law."

Mr. McPherson's comments came a day after a rampaging mob set fires,
smashed windows, damaged cars, and threw bottles at police following
Michigan State's loss to Duke University in a semi-final game of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association's basketball
championships.

More than 200 police officers, some clad in riot gear, managed to
restore calm by daybreak to the downtown area adjacent to the campus,
which was littered with broken glass, tear-gas canisters, and the
charred remnants of fires. At a news conference yesterday, Mark
Meadows, the Mayor of East Lansing, said the incident was "the worst
moment of my life" and the worst night of violence that the city's
police officers have ever encountered.

"What kind of families do these morons come from?" he
asked.

The riot, which some observers said drew as many as 5,000 students and
others, came at a time of escalating tension between students and the
university over efforts by Michigan State administrators to curb
underage drinking.

In May, several thousand students clashed with police after the
university closed a popular field used by students for tailgate
parties. The students hurled cans and bottles at police, who were able
to contain the crowd with tear gas. Seventeen students were arrested
in that incident. (See a story from The Chronicle on May 15, 1998.)

For Saturday night, university officials said they had planned a
fireworks show and dance to give students something to do after the
basketball game. But they said that that gathering apparently had no
relation to the riot.

"Any excuse that this was some kind of post-game celebration is out
the window," said Terry Denbow, vice-president for university
relations. He said the riot appeared to have been a premeditated event
that would have occurred even if Michigan State had won. "The more I
talk to police officers and others, the more this becomes clear. This
had no relation to the Final Four."

He said that police officers told him that "over half of those
arrested were not M.S.U. students."

According to the East Lansing Police Department, which tallied the
damage on Sunday, 61 separate fires were set throughout the night.
Those included the burning of eight vehicles, one of which was a
patrol car that was rolled and stripped. The rioters also turned on
another patrol car, breaking all of its windows, and threw a brick
through the windshield of a fire truck. They also broke 24 windows of
businesses in the downtown area.

Police said they made 24 arrests, two for arson, 19 for disorderly
conduct, two for possession of alcohol by a minor, and one for
malicious destruction of property.

At the city's news conference, Mr. Meadows expressed his exasperation
at yet another major incident involving university students in less
than a year.

"The citizens of the city of East Lansing have to once again foot the
bill for the great benefit of having a university in our city," he
said. "Whether or not the actions of the mob can be attributed to
students, the simple fact is that the events of last night would not
have happened without the presence of the university.

"Everyone in this town struggles to balance the good and the bad," he
continued. "And for every student who disrupts ordinary life, there
are hundreds who do not. Eventually, that excuse, that call for
tolerance, loses its vitality when things like last night happen."

Mr. Meadows vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice and urged Mr.
McPherson and the university to expel any students who were
responsible for the destruction.

"I call on the Board of Trustees to do what the people of this state
elected them to do -- repeal the barriers to establishing an
off-campus crime policy and establish one," he said. "One bad apple
can spoil the barrel. Here there are hundreds."

Mr. McPherson, who attended Mr. Meadows's news conference, said at his
own news conference later in the day that he intended to do just that,
noting that any Michigan State student found to be involved in burning
a car "will be kicked out of school."

"There is no excuse for the violence that occurred last night," he
added. "Michigan State University has zero tolerance for this behavior."