[1569] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Flash Mob party at Simmons
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ken T Takusagawa)
Tue Oct 19 22:48:09 2004
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:18:55 -0400
From: Ken T Takusagawa <kenta@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
I'd like to propose that MIT brought this down upon
themselves, by cracking down on parties advertised by
traditional means (posted flyers, mailing lists, but you
never know what administrators might be lurking on mailing
lists), they've encouraged flash mobs to happen.
--ken
From Today's Tech (Oct 19, 2004):
STUDENTS MAY BE PUNISHED FOR PARTY
By Brian C. Keegan, Staff Reporter
Simmons Hall is under intense scrutiny following an
unregistered party that got out of control on the night of
Oct. 9. The event involved more than 200 people entering
Simmons through propped open doors, blocking or halting
elevators to the 9th and 10th floors, and stampeding down 10
flights of stairs following the appearance of the MIT
Police.
Simmons Housemaster Professor John M. Essigmann described
the situation in an e-mail to sponge-talk(at)mit.edu ``Risks
were taken. Things went badly.''
In the e-mail, he described the crowds that entered Simmons
as ``flash mobs'' that resulted from widespread advertising
and rapid communication about the event using cell phones.
The crowds were able to gain access to Simmons via two doors
that were propped open on the Vassar Street side.
The wrote that ``the security of our home was compromised
and MIT was put a risk for loosing [sic] its license to
operate Simmons as a lodging house in the City of Cambridge.
Earlier this week, the Dean's Office did consider some
drastic sanctions for our dorm (including a total ban on
social activities).''
The consequences for those responsible are still in the
process of being decided by the MIT administration. They
may face sanctions, fines, eviction, or other disciplinary
action. However, a compromise was reached for the residents
of Simmons Hall.
Dormitory Council President Ian Brelinsky '06 declined to
comment.
Compromise reached
Essigmann, who declined to be interviewed by phone, wrote in
an e-mail that a compromise, in lieu of social sanctions,
was reached with the dormitory's Judicial Committee and the
Dean's Office where every Simmons resident will be required
to attend at least one community meeting to ``work out a
local solution to the problem of out of control parties at
Simmons.'' Essigmann wrote that Associate Dean for Student
Life Programs Barbara A. Baker and Associate Professor
Margery Resnik, chair of the Committee on Discipline, will
meet this week to determine how MIT will handle the case.
``They take into consideration the nature of the incident
and how MIT has handled similar problems in the past,'' he
wrote.
A similar incident involving underage drinking occurred at
Next house after two alcohol offenses in 2000. An underage
female student required medical attention during a party on
the third east wing of Next House in October, 2000.
Following that incident, the Cambridge License Commission
and MIT reached a compromise requiring the whole dormitory
to be dry for 3 months and third east specifically for 6
months. The alternative was for Next House to lose its
lodging license which would have required MIT to find
rooming 400 evicted students.
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