Those who gathered in the street following the Terrapin men’s basketball team’s win over Duke on March 3 accomplished many things. They blocked traffic and damaged public and private property. They provoked police into a forceful response and turned innocent passers-by into unintended participants. They reincarnated the ugly ghosts of hooliganism from the past decade.
They caused donors and alumni to question the caliber of those who enroll at the university. They set another precedent for those in our community — or those yet to join — who would be immature enough to follow their example. They defamed a great university whose future is being built by world-class students, staff and faculty.
Regretfully, a few students applaud this adolescent and thuggish behavior, seeing it as a hallmark of one’s collegiate experience and an entitlement of athletic victory. Those who believe such nonsense are as responsible for the stains on our reputation as those who took to the streets. It is long past time that we all acted to change attitudes endorsing behavior that impedes this university from the full extent of its promise. Those that believe these things are a very few. If we all voiced our uncompromising intolerance of such behavior, it would cease.
My alma mater, the University of Florida, is a world-class university like this one. Its football and basketball teams have won two national championships apiece in the last decade alone, and the undergraduate student body is twice the size of ours. Yet in the aftermath of each of those four championships, there were no riots, no arrests and no property damaged. I view the behavior on March 3 through the lens of a proud graduate of the University of Florida who has devoted 25 years of professional service to this university. And what I see I cannot accept or comprehend, nor would I have approved of as an undergraduate student.
Those donors and alumni who questioned the quality of our students — as reported in The Diamondback on March 11 — see this problem as I do. They ask whether their past allegiance or continuing support is deserved by today’s students. We all must realize the implications for this university. As long as any members of our community behave this way, all of our futures are affected.
There is no place for riots at as prestigious a university as ours. There is no excuse. There is no reason other than the immaturity of those who participate, and all who do so should leave our ranks.
There will be more victories to celebrate. When they come, do not go into the streets. Do not gather to watch those who do. Do not fail to tell them to grow up and to celebrate in a way that brings credit to us all. Do not hesitate to shame them for conduct that erodes the credit deserved by the faculty, staff, athletic teams and 95 percent of a superb student body.
If we each shoulder the responsibility for speaking and acting against behavior that disgraces our university in the eyes of alumni, donors, employers and future students, then those few hooligans among us will either desist or be thrown out. Let us each act so that we may remember March 3 as the date of the last of the riots at this university.
Steve Petkas is the associate director for Resident Life. He can be reached at spetkas at umd dot edu.
