It will soon become legend.
University students and community members took to the streets of the West University neighborhood over the weekend in a spree of violence and vandalism that lasted until 3 a.m.
Since then, the University and the city of Eugene have been discussing what happened and how to prevent more riots from occurring in the future. But until now, no one has heard from the students themselves in a public setting.
The ASUO will be hosting a press conference today at 9 a.m. in the EMU’s Taylor Lounge to allow students to voice their general responses to the weekend chaos.
“This is a jumping off point that will allow students to get their voices heard,” ASUO President Rachel Pilliod said. “The riots have been pinned on the University, and students haven’t had a chance to speak out.”
Pilliod said she hopes to hear the students’ responses and use their input to help bridge the gap of communication between students, police and the community.
She said ASUO also plans to host accountability sessions in the future for students and community members.
“This is a chance for us to be proactive and prevent similar situations in the future,” ASUO Student Senator Eric
Bailey said.
Bailey said he thinks the riots reflect poorly on the students, but wants to note that many people from the community also participated, and the University shouldn’t be held entirely responsible.
Barbara West, special counsel to University President Dave Frohnmayer, said the University has plans to continue working with property managers and business owners in the campus area to generate ideas for solving these problems in the future.
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Jan Oliver said the University has been working actively with EPD to help prevent any riots from occurring this weekend.
West said there has been a lot of talk about how the University can help prevent riots in the long run, but no formal decisions have been made.
“Whatever the mechanism, we are going to try and improve this situation,” she said.
EPD will try to improve the situation by having more officers patrolling the campus area during weekends.
“We already increased our patrol for the Bob Dylan concert this weekend, but we will be stretching our hours a little bit more,” EPD officer Pete Aguilar said.
Along with increasing patrols, Aguilar said EPD has plans to conduct more workshops this year that he hopes will prevent future riots.
He said in the past four days, the office has received more phone calls from people in residence halls and the Greek system requesting that officers come speak to their groups about the effects and consequences of alcohol abuse.
Aguilar said it is common for students who have just left home to test their limits, and the point of the seminars is to share with students EPD’s expectations as well as students’ responsibilities.
“There is a wide range of discretion and multiple citations for misdemeanors that can be used in response to students’ actions,” Aguilar said. “How the students respond to the police officers will determine the course of action taken.”
Aguilar said EPD is basically trying to solve a problem, and if students remain polite and cordial, they will face the minimal amount of punishment.
“If a student is fighting me or using slander, I tend to think that maybe talking to me is not working, so maybe if they talked to a judge, they would listen,” he said.
Aguilar said he hopes EPD’s educational meetings will inform students and discourage them from rioting and disobeying authorities.
“It’s a chance for us to meet outside of the conflict and talk about it,” he said. “Basically, all we can do is meet person to person with the students and let them know what type of behavior we think is appropriate.”