Miami Student

Issue date: 9/17/08 Section: Front Page

Students lined the sidewalks, flooded into the streets and climbed trees to get a better view of Lewis Place Monday evening, chanting "How can we study if we can't see?" and "No power, no class."

Seventy officers from the Oxford Police Department (OPD) and the surrounding Butler County area responded to students who were protesting the opening of the school when most off-campus students, and much of the Oxford area, were still without power.

The protest was organized by Miami junior Nick Lupica and senior Eric Hapner after they felt they didn't receive sufficient advice from President David Hodge's office on where to shower and study during the power outage.

A windstorm in the area Sunday afternoon left Miami's campus, Oxford and the surrounding Cincinnati area without power, causing classes to be canceled Monday.

This left students, especially those living off-campus, with the Shriver Center to study once it got dark Monday night.

"We went to Hodge's office and asked where we were supposed to shower, and were told the Recreational Sports Center (RSC) … We then informed (a secretary at Hodge's office) that they were closed and were given no additional suggestions," Lupica said.

Barbara Jones, vice president of student affairs, said she spoke to students on the phone before the protest, pointing out the university had sent text messages earlier in the day via the e2Campus emergency text messaging service to let people know Shriver and other dining halls were open.

She said they also had plans to open the RSC and Goggin Ice Arena for showers, but were not able to until Tuesday morning when power was restored to campus.

Faced with this information, Lupica said he felt Hapner and himself needed to do something "drastic." They organized a sit-in on Hodge's front lawn in an attempt to get him or any administrators to come out and talk to them on the matter, but their protest was quickly popularized via text messages.

"We just wanted some transparency, someone to talk to us and tell us what is going on, not some arbitrary e-mail or text message," Hapner said.

Lupica said they were frustrated and didn't think the university was addressing those living off-campus.

"We just wanted to talk, we wanted some reasons," he said. "We thought they were only focusing on on-campus students, when most of the campus doesn't live on-campus."

They said they never thought they would fill the front yard, but when they arrived at 9 p.m. there were already 50 people there. From there, the crowd kept growing, with police estimating that 3,000 students eventually showed up during the course of the night.

"We were just in awe," Hapner said. "It was good to see the support.

Hapner said the protest was popularized since the library closed at 9 p.m. and the on-campus generators shut down at 10 p.m.

Lupica and Hapner said they didn't think they would get classes canceled and Mike Scott, Miami's student body president, told them Hodge was out of town, but they decided they still wanted to make a statement.

"We thought you know lets still do it, it's a statement none the less," Lupica said. "The administration will hear it."

Accroding to Dionn Tron, associate vice president for university communications, Hodge was in Columbus meeting with high school counselors as part of a recruiting effort. Tron said Hodge found out about the protest later in the evening and was assured that everything was under control.

"Not only was he aware, but he was monitoring it very closely (and was) on the phone with people making sure things didn't get out of control," Tron said.

Unfortunately aspects of the protest did get more violent than Lupica and Hapner anticipated, with projectile objects thrown at officers and their cruisers.

"I was disappointed someone threw a bottle at a cop," Hapner said. "That just defeats the whole purpose.

OPD Sgt. Jim Squance said the situation snowballed out of control as the evening went on, saying it was a poor way for students to voice their concerns and frustrations.

Squance said police asked students to disperse when they began to stand in U.S. Route 27, but students failed to leave the road.

"If you are gathering and have a point to make, make your point and go," Squance said. "When the police ask you to go, it is time to go."

Squance said OPD then called in help from an additional 10 local police departments to help them control the protestors. According to Squance, this took those officers away from their own communities, costing the units a lot of money.

"The timing was bad," Squance said. "We had to draw in many police officers to deal with this and it was an unfortunate set of circumstances and I think it was something that shouldn't have happened."

Jones agreed that the message was lost by the behavior of some students.

"I think some of the students were behaving in a way that took away from the message they were trying to send," Jones said. "I'm not sure the message was as clear as could be. The students who organized were trying to having a conversation, but very shortly they weren't able to have a conversation either."

Scott said that by 9:45 p.m. the protest felt more like a pep rally.

"I enjoyed seeing a lot of that spirit out there, but at the same time safety was my main concern last night," Scott said.

Scott said when students starting blocking Route 27, it became a safety issue. After talking with administration and police, Scott said he decided he should be the one to address the students.

"My main concern is safety and when you have students in the middle of U.S. highway no matter what time of night, there are serious implications," Scott said. "With students climbing trees or lights, we are very fortunate they didn't fall."

Scott also recognized the lack of knowledge and communication between off-campus students and the university.

"As an off-campus student, I was a little disheartened at the lack of knowledge going on off-campus, but my feeling is they will learn from this and they will have safeguards in the future," Scott said.

Hapner said he would like the university to form a plan that will better help off-campus residents if a situation like this occurs again.

"The type of response I would like to see is for (Hodge) to form a legitimate plan so there is some type of organization of who is going to get food and how they are going to distribute it … off-campus," Hapner said.

According to Jones, the university has responded with a Web blog that allows students to post concerns and provide ideas and suggestions.

Police started leaving the protest at 1 a.m.

"We are glad everything ended peacefully last night," Scott said. "I was fully aware of the unpopularity of my presence there, but I just wanted to be there to ensure their (students) rights were being protected and a student voice was heard by Miami and the police department."

For one reporter's observations of the events, go to "Observing the protest at Lewis Place".

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