Pitt: We warned students

From Eleanor Chute:

A Q&A with Robert Hill, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 early afternoon:

"This was a very good week for the University of Pittsburgh leading into Thursday afternoon. We had two world leaders here. The leaders engaged with our students. There were good addresses given, good questions and answers. In the case of the Russian president, it made the national news. At the University of  Pittsburgh, we were pleased that we had remained open so that the visitors could see the life of the campus in full flower and our students and faculty could conduct a number of really high quality programs surrounding the G-20 visit."

"We were just very disappointed that all changed Thursday night and was repeated again Friday night, with property damage on Thursday and arrests and more arrests on Friday night. Most of our students were engaged in their normal activities on Thursday and Friday and even Friday evening. They went to class. They played Frisbee on the cathedral lawn. They went to their social activities Thursday and Friday evening. It's just really disappointing in the midst of our terrific campus life we had this ugly, untoward behavior."

"We warned students we had information there could be disruptive activities. We warned students to be safe, careful, be responsible, go to our Web site to get the safety tips about how to keep themselves from harm, from getting into trouble. We knew that some people were just determined to disrupt the normal campus life Friday evening."

"We believe that [the warnings] was helpful as well. Most of the students were going about their normal activities. Then there was this unruly group that was just determined to disrupt that normal activity. Those that were caught."

"What we're telling them [students] to do is to use good judgment and to stay away from areas that might put them in harm's  way.

"We actually had a buildup. All week we had been preparing students to understand what their rights and responsibilities were, how not to get in trouble and how to keep safe. Then we reiterated that and called special attention to it through our emergency network [on cell phones]."

He said that early in the evening Pitt sent a message through the emergency network that "indicated there was an indication that there would be disruptive activity and they should be careful and keep themselves safe."

A second message told students that the "situation is deteriorating and they should really be careful, stay close to home."

He said, "By the time we were able to assess the situation Friday evening, then we intensified our alert and warning."

"The dance here is between those who want to disrupt activity and our keeping our students safe without having to shut down normal operations. Then the people who don't want us to have a normal campus life will have won [if the university were to shut down]. What we were telling people to do was just be careful and use good judgment."

About what prompted Friday night's actions: "Primarily it was people forming very large crowds that had the potential of disrupting normal activities, traffic flow, egress and the like. We had a very large contingency of law enforcement to help us keep our community safe. In order to keep things from getting out of hand, there were orders to disperse, orders to keep moving. Those who disobeyed those instructions were arrested.  Much of the arrests last night had to do with failure to disperse when ordered."

"We also had alerted people to be careful and be responsible and later to stay near home. The crowds consisted of people determined to disrupt, people who are trying to protest peacefully and people who are simply onlookers interested in seeing what's going on. In that kind of environment, it's very difficult to manage a situation. It's best people just disperse and move away."

"In our quest to have people use good judgment, one might conclude, ' I don't want to be near that situation.' Once the crowds do form, the police had a responsibility to restore order and have the crowd disperse."

Compared to Steelers and Penguins crowds in Oakland? "It's kind of difficult to understand what motivates people, but in the one case, it was supposed to be celebration and the celebration got out of hand. Here it's supposed to be the opposite, protest that got out of hand. That was the big difference, the reason."

He said he did not have any report on Friday night property damage. "I'm not clear there was property damage."

He said there were about 400 police officers, a combination of officers from several law enforcement departments, including the city and campus police.

On Thursday night, there were 10 law enforcement agencies, including the city, state, county and departments from various places, including Miami, Fla.

He did not know how many officers were there on Thursday, but he said it was less than on Friday.

Disciplinary action? "We don't know that any students were arrested. We haven't gotten a look at that. Our student code of conduct requires those in violation of the student code of conduct would face discipline. That could be a range, from warnings to suspension to expulsion."

He said there were arrests on Pitt property.

"It's just very unfortunate that the events of Thursday and earlier in the week that were carefully planned by faculty and staff and students went so well were later tarnished because of the bad behavior that went on Thursday night and Friday night.

Instead of the big memory being the seminars and lectures, visits by the world leaders, that memory is now including these images of disruption."

Did the police act appropriately? "I have no evidence that they didn't, but I do also have to say that in the middle of the kind of chaos that was created as you reflect back and do your Monday morning quarterbacking, you always think about what might have gone better all around and you always want to do the best you can under good times and challenging times. There are few times more challenging for Pitt in its whole history than these events of Thursday night and Friday night."

At the same time, he said, there are few events in Pitt's history that "were more exhilarating that the activities leading into Thursday night."

Mr. Hill said he wasn't certain when the chancellor would be available to comment.

"As you can imagine, it's a busy time for him," Mr. Hill said. "I'm certain he's not going to be available this weekend."