Shaken and angered by Sunday's events, MSU officials pledged that any student actively involved in the night's melee would be suspended from the university.
Police struggled for hours to control a disorderly crowd of at least 2,000, which assembled in the Cedar Village area shortly after the men's basketball team lost to Texas 85-76 in the NCAA Tournament. The crowd moved throughout north-central campus and downtown East Lansing, igniting up to eight fires and overturning at least four cars.
Eight people had been arrested as of 11:30 p.m., including six MSU students. On Friday, some 3,000 people flooded East Lansing streets after MSU beat Maryland. Police arrested 18 people as a result of those events, including 15 MSU students.
"This is just outrageous," a somber MSU President M. Peter McPherson said Sunday night on the phone from Texas. "I was just truly disheartened. We went through some of this before."
The weekend's events reminded many - including MSU administrators - of the March 27-28, 1999, riot, when about 10,000 people ran rampant through downtown East Lansing. The incident, which came on the heels of the men's basketball team's Final Four loss to Duke, resulted in 132 arrests, including 71 MSU students. Prosecutors boasted an 86-percent conviction rate, sentencing 113 people for 55 felonies and 58 misdemeanors.
MSU officials vowed Sunday night to crack down on unruly behavior. They said the university will - for the first time - use its Disorderly Conduct Policy. Passed as a direct result of the 1999 riot to prevent mayhem from returning to MSU, the policy allows officials to suspend students for crimes committed off campus.
"I think it's important that we aggressively enforce the policy," McPherson said.
In 1999 - when policies strictly limited MSU's ability to punish students for off-campus behavior - only three students were suspended.
"For students to act inappropriately is really sad and pathetic," Trustee David Porteous said. "And for students that do this, we passed tough policies and you can expect them in this situation."
University spokesman Terry Denbow said MSU's reaction this time will be much more severe. Police were videotaping incidents in an effort to identify those responsible.
"The next time I release enrollment figures, it may be a smaller number than it was last Friday," Denbow said from his Olds Hall office. Police used tear gas Sunday night to disperse rioters from the plaza between Olds and the Administration Building, where a car was overturned and several fires were set.
Denbow said he was disgusted to read comments of a student who said events such as Friday's disturbance were "why I came to Michigan State."
"If this is why you came here, maybe it's why you should leave," Denbow said.
Denbow said the university would battle to keep this weekend's incidents from tarnishing the reputations of MSU and East Lansing the way the 1999 riot did.
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said he expects the university will discipline students at fault for the disturbance. He hoped this riot would not create a strain between MSU and the city.
"It would affect our relationship with some students," he said. "Most students were not involved in this."
And although most students were not a part of the melee, officials recognize the incident will affect MSU's image.
"This week we announced a Truman scholar and a Goldwater scholar and the basketball team performed great," Denbow said. "And then we have these students.
"Clearly it shows our commitment to a diverse student body because we have both winners and losers."
Staff writers Chrystal Griffin, Kurt Ludke, Ed Ronco and Jeremy W. Steele contributed to this report.
