SDSU Collegian

Issue date: 10/4/05 Section: Juice Cover Story

This street sign from the corner of 9th and 12th was trampled in the movement of the group.

Brookings firefighters stand guard. The Fire Department along with the Brookings Police Department helped control the crowd.

Police lights illuminate the dark sky as officers block off several streets on campus.Fire trucks were also used to keep students from leaving.

Many light poles on campus were pushed over throughout the night. Emergency box poles were also tipped.

Several Brookings Police Department officers, as well as undercover officers, were called in to help control the group.

What started as a power outage quickly turned into a mob of students who decided to take control of the campus.

However, Monday night's demonstrations can't really be considered a riot because of the small amount of damage and violence that occured.

"In order for this to be considered a riot, there must be violence,"say Sociology Professor Patricia Joffer. "Therefore, this is merely a demonstration."

Whatever it is considered, many students still joined together in one large group to wander campus and basically just cause a ruckus.

Jen Dietman, a fifth-year sociology major lives in an apartment near Movie Gallery on 6th Street and Medary Avenue.

"I could hear [the students] from my apartment," Dietman says.

Chants including "Go Big Blue" seemed to make the 'riot' sound more like an SDSU pride march than anything else.

Throughout the night, students pulled on tree branches and tipped over half a dozen street lights, several emergency box poles and even a small shed in the Grove Hall parking lot. There were also reports of small garbage fires.

Bryce Kolander, a nursing sophomore, participated along with the other students.

"It was crazy," he says. "It was like nothing I had ever seen before."

This is not the first time that SDSU has lost power, but it is the first time students have reacted like this.

"(During) my freshman year, the power went our for most of the day and classes were cancelled, but nobody freaked out like this," Dietman says.

Although the reason for these students getting together is unknown, some student have a couple suggestions.

"I don't know why it happened," Dietman says. "Maybe becuase it's the beginning of the school year and kids were bored."

Sociology senior Jacob Kougl also didn't have any idea why the students did this, but doesn't think he would have joined in.

"Even if I lived on campus, I doubt I'd have joined it," he says.

Residence hall staff are trained to handle blackouts, which have happened before, says Michael Kervin, associate director of residential life.

Staff are provided with containers of flashlights and batteries. Once a power outage occurs, staff lock doors for security reasons and do continuous rounds, he said.

"We prefer if people would have just came and stayed in," Kervin said. "It's just an inconvenience we have to deal with."

Staff continued to montior the situation until about 3:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, he said.

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