As students return to campus and the keg beer starts flowing, Ohio State officials remain prepared for disturbances like the alcohol-fueled riots of the past year.
“Strict law enforcement will continue in the off-campus neighborhoods,” said Bill Hall, vice president for Student Affairs. “We’re going to increase joint patrolling, but we’re starting much earlier.”
Neighborhoods near campus were wracked by drunken riots last fall and spring, with boisterous crowds setting fires, smashing cars and hurling bottles at police officers there to clear the streets. Scenes of tear gas clouds filling the streets and party-goers recoiling from the impact of rubber bullets became all too familiar last April, when two weekends in a row turned violent.
Although OSU officials posted photos of individuals chucking bottles and trying to tip cars on a Web site in an attempt to identify violent offenders, it wasn’t very successful.
“Unfortunately most of the hard-core troublemakers we have not been able to identify or weren’t students,” Hall said. “Most of the students got into trouble for not dispersing when they were told or for underage consumption; most of them probably weren’t even aware they were breaking the law.”
Following the riots, OSU instituted a “zero-tolerance” policy, adding provisions to the Code of Student Conduct allowing the university to prosecute students who commit crimes off-campus. Punishment can include suspension or dismissal from OSU.
Mike Brown, spokesman for Columbus mayor Michael Coleman, said that although the riots of last year were both very expensive and destructive for the city, officials are taking a wait-and-see approach, as opposed to filling the streets with officers in anticipation of out-of-control parties.
“We try and give people the benefit of the doubt that they can behave themselves,” Brown said. “But I think we will be a little more vigilant following what happened in the spring.”
Meanwhile, OSU and city officials have met with area landlords to devise ways to curb future violence. Buckeye Real Estate president Wayne Garland says there isn’t much landlords can do.
“As far as actual steps you can take, they’re minimal.” Garland said. “It’s more an issue of young people acting responsibly, realizing there are consequences to hosting parties that are asking for things to get out of control.”
Although Buckeye Real Estate didn’t evict anyone after hosting out-of-hand parties, Garland did set up meetings with problem tenants and their parents, but achieved little success.
“The most disheartening aspect to me is when you contact parents and express a concern, less than half of the parents seem to be concerned,” Garland said. “That is a symptom of the problem.”
According to one OSU official, another problem is that campus area vendors sell beer in glass bottles.
“It just doesn’t make sense to sell beer in bottles, they’re dangerous,” said Willie Young, director of Off-Campus Student Services. “College students are not big enough connoisseurs of beer that they can tell the difference of beer bottled.”
Local supermarkets and convenience stores don’t seem to agree, and lifted a self-imposed ban on weekend bottle sales put in place after the Spring riots. The mayor had asked businesses not to sell beer in bottles in April, but according to Mike Brown that request was only until students left for the summer.
Other possible solutions put forth by OSU include late-night activities on campus as an alternative to binge drinking, as well as a “neighborhood patrol” made up of Columbus and OSU police officers to inform students of their responsibilities as hosts and public safety laws.
Is that enough to stop riots before they start? Dan Watson, ajunior in journalism and communication, doesn’t think so.
“Of course it’s not going to stop. Having a bunch of cops around, you make people paranoid when they’re drinking and that’s just going to make things worse,” he said.
