East Lansing and the MSU community are no strangers to riotous behavior, and with the basketball season getting into full swing, city and university officials said they are prepared for the worst.
Last week, city and university officials attended a conference at The Ohio State University to discuss issues surrounding riots in university communities. Officials from universities across the nation attended the conference to compare tactics and discuss prevention methods.
"Our job is to be prepared," East Lansing Deputy police Chief Tom Wibert said. "We're doing more than hoping for the best. We're taking active measures to prevent it."
Deputy City Manager Jean Golden said the conference offered educational sessions on civility, sportsmanship and fan behavior.
"It begins with the student athletes themselves treating other teams with respect and being role models for how the fans ought to behave," Golden said.
Wibert said he was disappointed that the conference was geared toward academics and not law enforcement, which forced police officers to informally meet and discuss the issues themselves.
"It was good to talk to people all over the country who have been through the same experiences we've been through," Wibert said.
During the March 27-28, 1999 riot revelers caused about $250,000 in damage to the city. The March 28-30 disturbances caused about $40,000 in damage to the city and campus
Wibert said East Lansing is taking the right steps to prevent the problems and deal with them when they arise.
Those steps include more community policing, working with student-community groups and having a plan of action before major sporting events, such as the NCAA men's basketball tournament in March.
The department also contacts officers from other areas and makes sure enough equipment is on hand.
Although the city has a plan to deal with riot behaviors, officials plan to discuss the conference.
Golden said East Lansing and MSU have become front runners in dealing with the issue and hope to educate students on the consequences of unruly behavior.
"We're always prepared to deal with crowd behavior," she said. "You have to be when you're a community with a university with 40,000 people across the street."
Ginny Haas, MSU's director of community relations, said the issue needs to be looked at jointly by MSU officials, students and city constituents. Haas also attended the conference and said she brought back a different perspective on crowd behavior.
"This is clearly a national phenomenon that is nothing unique to MSU," she said.
