By Stephanie Peters
In anticipation of Sunday’s Super Bowl, university administrators, student leaders and campus police joined forces with city officials this week to discuss and finalize planning intended to prevent a repeat of last year’s fatal Red Sox and Patriots riots.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole met Monday morning with the presidents of local colleges and universities, including President Richard Freeland, to clearly state the “zero-tolerance” policy that will be in effect this weekend.
O’Toole also met with student government leaders of local schools Monday evening to not only express the “zero-tolerance” message, but to address any concerns students may have had.
“We’re here to tell you we really care about the students in the community; that your safety is important to us; that we consider you a valuable asset to our community and we want to work with you,” O’Toole said. “I don’t want to see another innocent bystander hurt. I don’t even want to see someone behaving badly be hurt.”
O’Toole and members of the Boston Police Department (BPD) briefly explained that Sunday’s sporting event will receive police coverage similar to that of the World Series and the Democratic National Convention. Boston Police Headquarters will host a unified command center where BPD officers and representatives from other city agencies including the Boston Fire Department, Emergency Medical Service and the MBTA will work with officers in the field to monitor any violent outbreaks. In total, O’Toole said she expects there will be over 1,000 officers involved in policing the city Sunday. That is a sharp increase from last year’s Super Bowl, when only 138 BPD officers were dispersed throughout the entire city.
Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President for Financial Affairs Ali Barlow, who attended the student meeting as a representative of Northeastern, said she sees the communication between students and the BPD as reassuring.
“I believe that Commissioner O’Toole has the best interests of the students at heart,” Barlow said. “She is completely open to suggestions from universities and their students in the planning of the city’s response to a Patriots’ Super Bowl victory.”
James Ferrier, associate director of public safety, said NUPD will work cooperatively Sunday night with a unit of BPD.
“We will have a BPD captain with our captain on Sunday night and we will be managing both NUPD and the supplemental police unit assigned to the area,” Ferrier said.
Both Ferrier and BPD Deputy Superintendent Patrick Crossen predicted officers will be equipped with riot gear Sunday. More than anything, he said, this is meant as a safety precaution for the officers.
“There will be officers in each area of the city in everyday uniforms and some equipped for crowd control,” Ferrier said. “The NUPD does have helmets and crowd control gear that was used during the baseball season. All officers will be equipped with them Sunday, but it’s to be determined if each will use them.”
Although city-wide discussion and planning of safety intensified in the past week, Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier said planning of on-campus festivities intended to discourage students from taking to the streets began three weeks ago.
“ResLife and campus activities have put together a group of people, both administrators and students representing the Resident Student Association (RSA), SGA, the Council for University Programs (CUP) and many of the Greek organizations, to get everybody involved in putting together the types of events where we know the students will stay on campus in a safe environment,” Klotzbier said.
Stetson West, afterHOURS and the student center’s West Addition will open at 5 p.m. Sunday for pre-game activities, including T-shirt giveaways, music, trivia competitions, football squares and registration for prize drawings. Free food will be served at each venue throughout the night and students will be able to watch a live feed from the other official celebrations on-campus.
Sometime following the game, drawings will be held for prizes including a plasma screen television, iPods and DVD players. However, to be eligible to win the prizes, students must be present at the time of the drawing.
“I think that if students want to win a $2,000 television, they’re going to stick around until the end,” said SGA President Bill Durkin.
Klotzbier agreed, calling the drawing a “high-end event [that will make] students feel that it’s worth their while to wait.”
The increased planning for this year’s on-campus Super Bowl parties comes not only as a result of the fatal riot that occurred in the Hemenway and St. Stephen Street area last year, but from student feedback SGA received as well.
“Last year, the game was just shown on the big screen televisions and we heard from students that they wanted more,” Durkin said. “I expect a really strong turnout this year, because of the type of event we’re putting on.”
Although he gives the university credit for its event planning, middler computer science major Ryan Leonard will be watching the game at a friend’s house off campus.
“I would consider going to events on campus, but since I’m 21, I usually drink with my friends,” Leonard said. “I’ve read that they’re advertising the event and sending out flyers warning students, so I think they’re doing a good job.”
Other students, including freshman accounting major Brian Kriscenski, have yet to finalize their Super Bowl plans.
“I don’t know where I’m going to watch the game yet, probably with some friends in Stetson East,” Kriscenski said. “I haven’t heard much about the events, but I think if they are offering free food, it should attract people.”
Although the effectiveness of planned Super Bowl parties remains to be seen, Klotzbier is confident in the behavior of Northeastern students.
“If the World Series is any indication, and I think it is, what we witnessed there were our students on their best behavior. Many of the students that I’ve talked to feel they have been unfairly branded as ‘the rioters,’ and that’s a moniker that they don’t want to have.”
