A SPECIAL REPORT

AT CONNECTICUT'S PARTY WEEKEND, DAYS OF MUSIC REPLACED BY NIGHTS OF
VANDALISM

STORRS, CONN.- The 80 police officers did not move last month as bottles,
cans, and rocks were lobbed at them by a crowd of students and their friends
partying in a dirt parking lot that adjoins the University of Connecticut
campus.

When some in the crowd of 2,000 people overturned a black Honda Accord, the
police, from university, local, and state forces, stood their ground. Even
when some men set a couch on fire, the police remained on the edge of the
lot.

Only when the students put the burning couch on the Honda -- raising the
possibility that its gas tank would explode -- did the police move in, using
pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

The torching of the Honda on Saturday, April 25, marked the climax of a
riotous weekend here. By Sunday morning, six cars had been turned over,
numerous bonfires started, and 27 police cars vandalized. Police arrested 87
people, about 40 of them Connecticut students, on charges ranging from
inciting to riot to assaulting a police officer.

The mayhem, captured on videotape by both the police and students, was the
worst ever at University Weekend, the last big blowout here before final
exams. The campus tradition is known for parties with names like
"Kill-a-Keg." Last year's events, too, were marred by riots and dozens of
arrests.

Robert Hudd, the university's police chief, said some students these days
are looking for any excuse to spar with police.

"You almost have the police more in the 'Gandhi-esque' mode," he said. "We
took a beating for hours. Our attitude was, 'You can have a party, and
you're clearly going to break the law -- just don't break it on a massive
scale.'"

Students say University Weekend is their big chance to let loose in a small
town that offers little excitement -- and they don't like police cramping
their fun. On the night before the Honda was burned, police broke up a
massive party at Carriage House, a complex of 16 apartments in a wooded area
about a mile west of the campus. When a bonfire fed with furniture
threatened one of the units, police in riot gear moved in to scatter the
crowd as students pelted them with bottles and cans.

"It feels awkward to have all those police officers around," said Scott
Berni, a sophomore who attended the Carriage House party. "Students see it
as a violation of their right to have a good time."

Other students said police went too far when they moved to quell the riots.
Amy Rydzy, a freshman, said she was merely taking in the spectacle in the
parking lot on Saturday night when the police decided to clear the crowd.
She was hit in the face and neck with pepper spray and knocked to the ground
by an officer's shield, she said. "I was up the entire night with ice on my
face and neck," she said.

University officials said bystanders should have known better. "Anyone with
two cents of intelligence should have been getting their butt out of there,"
said Vicky L. Triponey, Connecticut's vice-chancellor for student affairs.

The riot came despite months of planning by administrators, police, and
student leaders, who had hoped that on-campus events would limit any
violence. The university held a party featuring rock bands, body piercing,
and beer sales, for students who were 21, on the same night as the Carriage
House gathering.

But only about 100 students attended the university event, compared with
4,000 to 5,000 people in a clearing near the Carriage House apartments.

Adrienne Miller, a freshman, said the university's party failed because
underage students couldn't purchase alcohol, and because it had been planned
by student leaders. "They didn't contact any of the normal kids to see what
we wanted to do," she said. The many students with friends in town skipped
the university's party because it was open only to Connecticut students, she
added.

Saturday's disturbances began shortly before midnight, when students in the
crowded dirt lot tried to expand the party to an adjoining university
parking area. But police had barricaded the area, because they didn't want
the gathering of drunken students to spill over into the crowd of 1,700 that
would soon be leaving a nearby auditorium where a cultural event known as
"Latin Fest" was being held.

The presence of the police incited the crowd, Ms. Miller said. "The more
authority that shows up, the more people are going to want to rebel. If the
people start throwing bottles at police next year, maybe the police should
leave."

The police who endured the hail of bottles had a different view. "It's like
a bunch of spoiled brats who have never been told No," one officer told Ms.
Triponey.

University Weekend hasn't always created havoc. Karen Williams, a university
spokeswoman and a student here in the 1970s, recalls mellow afternoons of
cold beer and loud bands on the grass in back of the student union. The
minimum drinking age then was 18. "I don't remember any fights or
vandalism," she said.

But the minimum age was raised to 21 in virtually every state by 1986, when
Congress threatened to withhold highway-construction funds from states that
didn't do so. That law has "complicated" the way colleges manage social
events, said Mark A. Emmert, Connecticut's chancellor.

"You combine the 21-year-old drinking law and the fact that students don't
consider a party a success unless it has alcohol, and you've got a real
recipe for problems," he said.

Mr. Emmert will appoint a committee of students, faculty members, and
police, which may recommend that University Weekend be scrapped. But doing
so may be pointless: Some students are already boasting of plans to flip
police cruisers next year.

The riots have sparked outrage among the state's citizens, many of whom
believe that swift punishment is the only way to prevent more mayhem.
"Students involved in the vandalism and arson should be expelled, no
questions asked," said an editorial in The Hartford Courant.

Governor John G. Rowland has called for the university to change its student
code of conduct; currently, the university can't punish students for
off-campus offenses.

Connecticut officials say they may expand the code so that it applies to the
entire local area, but they worry about becoming wrapped up in dealing with
crimes that they can't properly investigate.

Philip E. Austin, the university's president, conceded that punishments have
been lax in the past. But that would no longer be the case, he said. "If,
over the years, people are allowed to engage in unacceptable behavior at
very little cost, it is not surprising that that behavior would continue.
Those who act inappropriately must be expelled."

Some students who were arrested in last month's riots worry that their days
at Connecticut are numbered.

Joshua Satin, a sophomore, faces three misdemeanor charges -- first-degree
riot, breach of peace, and third-degree criminal mischief -- for his
behavior on Saturday night.

Sitting on a couch in the student union, he pointed to bite marks above his
elbow that he said he received from a police dog as he fled the dirt lot.
When he returned to his dormitory -- with a torn, bloody shirt and his face
stinging from pepper spray -- he broke a window (a classmate pushed him into
it, he said) and yelled some insults at the police.

"I was acting out of rage and fear," said Mr. Satin, who admits that he was
drunk that night. "I'll be devastated if I'm expelled."

Next year, if he's still around, he plans on taking "a nice weekend trip,"
out of town, over University Weekend.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Checked-by: "R. Lake"