>rofessor says alcohol part of 'worrisome' riots
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By Christopher Blair
Emerald Reporter
U it something in the air? In
the water? In the beer?
Whatever the cause, fights or
riots on or near campus are Ire
coining more and mure fre
quent
Officials at the Eugene Police
Department and the Office of
Public Safety say the past few
years on campus have been rel
atively quiet
This year, however, has seen
three "ugly" incidents where
groups of people become vio
lent toward each other, their
surroundings or even the po
lice.
Oases in point:
• a riot resulting from almost
tot) people attempting to crash
a collection of parties near 14th
Avenue and Kerry Street the
night of May El’D officers
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were called in to control the
crowd, which grew to between
4(H) and r>()() people, most of
them high school and Universi
ty students
When the officers arrived,
some of the rioters at the scene
threw bottles and cans at the of
ficers and their cars Windows
were smashed and the street
was littered with broken bottles
and cans
One University student was
sent to the hospital and re
ceived 15 stitches to her fore
head Two full shifts of Ki’D of
ficers were at the scene wearing
helmets by the riot's end: two
students were arrested and
charged with rioting and anoth
er for disorderly conduct.
• a snowball fight the night of
Feb 2 between dorm residents
on the "Uumpv Lumpy" field
near Bean Complex that turned
into a chaotic melee ns 200 stu
dents lined Agate Street and
started pelting passing cars, pe
destrians and bicyclists with
snow
One car slid into a power
pule as a result, and hundreds
of dollars in additional damage
was done to a dorm window
and car windshields. When
Kl’f) officers attempted to re
route traffic, they were forced
to leave as the snowballs were
turned on them
• a tight between members of
the beta Theta l‘i and Chi f'si
fraternities the night of Jan. 14
that resulted in the arrest of one
fraternity member for lining a
minor in possession of alcohol.
both houses sustained bro
ken windows and other minor
damage Incidentally, the Uni
versity placed both houses on
"social probation." limiting
their social function and rush
privileges.
It probably would lie easy to
label the incidents as "crowd
mentality” gone awry.
However, a University soci
ology professor said the ten
dency to label the actions of a
group as "mob" behavior is not
an accurate way to view the
group's actions if it turns vio
lent
"I really hesitate to use
words like 'crowd psychology'
and 'mob mentality.' " said
lack Whalen, an assistant soci
ology professor. "There's a ten
dency when people do things
to label them as crazy or im
moral, and that's not really ac
curate."
"If we want to figure out
how to stop these tilings, we
should stop thinking of them as
crowd psychology.” Whalen
said. "That doesn't give you a
good way to stop. Whatever
they did. it seemed to he the
right thing to do."
Whalen said sociologists pre
tor the term "collective ac
tion." which means that mem
bers of a group will tend to fol
low the actions of others
around them. This behavior is
normal enough. Whalen said
Sometimes, however, the be
havior can lie violent
Whalen cited an incident
from the "free speech" riots at
Berkley in the late 1 otitis as one
example of collective at lion
When a student was arrested
for distributing civil rights lit
erature, a group of students
peacefully sal around the po
lice car he was held in for -4
hours until he was set free
"But the people who w'ere ar
rested for throwing bottles are
probably asking themselves
'What in the hell did 1 get my
self into?' he said "The
people who sat around the po
lice car knew quite well what
they were doing
"The people at Berkeley
were guided by deeply felt
moral principles." Whalen
said. “If there was any code
guiding the people on May 5 it
was an alcohol-assisted anger
they felt in having their party
interrupted."
Whalen used recent demon
strations over U S. policy in
Central America and animal re
search as collective action on
campus guided by moral feel
ln«
The situations were similar
to the May 5 riot and the snow
hall fight because police
showed up to block the "goal”
of the group. Both the partiers
and snowball throwers were
"having a good time.”
But certain factors in tin? May
5 riot and the earlier fraternity
fight, most notably alcohol,
made the two incidents, and
perhaps the snowball fight, go
awry.
"At the same time there is an
increasing concern for alcohol
abuse, there is more abuse, at
least displayed in public,”
Whalen said. "I'm not quite
sure why that is.
"Why people feel that they
have to drink themselves into
oblivion, that's disturbing to
me." he said. "Two of these
student collective actions have
been concentrated around de
fending alcohol abuse, and at
tacking other students in the
case of those two fraternities.”
Elaine Green, acting dean of
students, said a variety of
things are being looked into
concerning the incidents, spe
cifically the recent riot inci
dent. One of the factors under
investigation is the banning of
kegs from Greek houses earlier
this year, which may have con
tributed to parties being moved
off campus in settings with less
supervision.
"Bart of the question would
lie were there these types of in
cidents before the keg deci
sion." Green said. "That kind
of behavior, being unrespon
sive to reasonable requests from
police, is inexcusable wherever
it takes place.”
"What has happened in re
cent years is perhaps an in
creasing enthusiasm for this
kind of self-destructive behav
ior.” Whalen said. ”1 know
people want to see some master
trend here I'm not sure I see
one yet. But it is worrisome "
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