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Spring Weekend Passes Without Major Problems
Spring Weekend passed without major incident this year, with many students consciously avoiding problems.
"Our students were relatively well behaved," said John Saddlemire, vice president for student affairs. "They clearly got the messages we sent them about our expectations for the weekend and the consequences of unacceptable behavior."
Saddlemire noted that outsiders constituted the greatest problem. The large crowds at Celeron Square on Friday night and at X-lot on Saturday night appeared to be mostly made up of outsiders; and of the 39 people arrested by UConn police this year, 29 were not UConn students. The challenge for the future will be adopting strategies to keep outsiders away, Saddlemire said.
This year, the University again sent letters to area high schools asking the schools to request that parents keep their children away from the UConn campus. Letters also went to area colleges asking them to urge their students to stay away from Spring Weekend. Several, including the University of Massachusetts and the University of Hartford, also agreed to discipline their students if their names show up on arrest logs.
Robert Hudd, chief of police and director of public safety, said this year's celebration went well. "Students earned an 'A' for their behavior from the police," he said. "We are again grateful for the cooperation of the students, and especially for the help of the state police. Together, we, along with our fire department and those of area towns, were able to ensure the safety of all the participants."
Hudd also praised the work of Student Health Services, which set up a first aid center in X-lot for students.
Saddlemire said the scheduled events of the weekend - oozeball, residence hall carnivals, barbeques, and the Saturday night concert - were constructive activities that were widely attended and enjoyed.
