Two very different events brought hundreds, if not thousands of students together in the past week.
The first: a silent gathering at the rock on Farm Lane last Wednesday attended by more than 500 Spartans, including members of the men’s basketball team and head coach Tom Izzo. We remembered Lacey Holsworth, the 8-year-old princess from St. Johns, Mich., who stole the heart of Adreian Payne, the Spartan community and people across the nation.
The second: the infamous NachoFest party on Saturday filled with at least a thousand students listening to live music. The MSU tradition, which started nine years ago, was a way for students preparing for exams and final projects to come together and relieve some stress before the end of the semester while munching on nachos.
Although the two events had radically different motivations and atmospheres, a theme can be seen from last week’s gatherings — we don’t need to destroy things to come together as Spartans.
We all remember last December, when thousands of students embraced a very different MSU “tradition” of taking to the streets and burning couches in response to the football team’s Big Ten Championship win. Students aimed to celebrate by taking part in another Cedar Fest. But their actions, such as uprooting trees and street signs and trying to throw them into the flames, sparked responses from East Lansing and MSU police, who offered rewards and are aiming to charge about 60 students for crimes related to the fires.
MSU isn’t the only university to have students come together for a burst of reckless partying and celebrations, and some universities also had students starting fires and being destructive in response to NCAA games. Connecticut’s student body started fires after its team defeated the Kentucky and although Dayton celebrated safely at first with its president crowd surfing, it also later had issues with students starting fires related to the basketball games. Reports said police eventually used pepper spray on the crowd.
Spartans need to take a step back and consider embracing a more peaceful way to unite. Last week showed us it is possible to both recognize big losses for the MSU community and host big celebrations without flocking to the streets to watch the city burn.
Although NachoFest was a success, there was the possibility that it could have been busted by the police for getting out of control. Police approached NachoFest hosts prior to this year’s party and expressed concern about the hosts attempting to sell liquor without a license. But the hosts didn’t aim to cause any trouble, and decided against selling alcohol at the party. Throughout the day, police drove by the house to check on the celebration, but did not have to intervene.
We’ve shown the country that we can come together to honor Princess Lacey through the memorial and gathering at the rock Wednesday, and we showed our university and the city of East Lansing we could party peacefully together on Saturday. Coming together as a student body can be a tradition in itself. Let’s leave the couch burning out of it.
