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April 24, 2009, 02:20 PM ET
Text Messaging Gone Wild at U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Many colleges have adopted text alerts as part of their emergency notification plans. That’s because text-messaging technology is very efficient at mobilizing large groups of people quickly. Unfortunately, that efficiency can have a dark side, as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga discovered last night.
Apparently, private text messages—not university-sponsored alerts—invited students to a party at the library, which turned into a riot, according to local news sources. About 1,000 students congregated and tried to force their way into the building and jump off of it. Police arrived, and members of the crowd began throwing objects at the officers. Police responded by spraying mace in the air above the crowd, and several people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. (Posts on a blog claimed that the police did not issue a warning before using the spray.)
A Twitter message noted that a video of a similar party at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had been circulating among Chattanooga students, who then organized their event.
A university official said that some of the students believed this was “harmless fun,” but forcing entry to a building or disturbing the peace, particularly when students inside were trying to study, was far from harmless. —Josh Fischman
Categories: Student-Life, Social-Networking
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