Some Syracuse University officials have said they do not anticipate changes to events hosted in the Schine Student Center as a result of the fights in and outside the building early Sunday morning.

Department of Public Safety officers shut down a dance party in Goldstein Auditorium after a fight broke out at about 1:45 a.m.

About 850 people attended the event, said DPS Associate Chief John Sardino. As the party was coming to its scheduled end at about 2 a.m., several people began to fight in the center of the auditorium. More people joined in so that 40 or 50 people were involved at the height of the fight, Sardino said.

Fighting continued in the area between Schine and E.S. Bird Library after DPS cleared the auditorium, he said.

Syracuse police arrested eight SU students outside of Schine and one at the John C. Dillon Public Safety Building, though some said the students who were arrested weren’t involved in the fighting.

Safety measures, the amount of funding allocated to the organizers of the event and ability to put events on at Schine are all expected to remain the same.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, said in a statement that student parties like this event are regularly held on campus without major incidents. He said SU “will take a look at what occurred and what things might be able to be improved.”

“Our Division of Student Affairs will continue to support a safe and structured social environment for our students,” he said in the statement.

Bridget Yule, director of student centers and programming services, said in an email she was not authorized to speak about the incident and couldn’t speak on behalf of the university.

Six DPS officers were assigned to monitor the party, which is typical for an event of its size in Goldstein, Sardino said. He said DPS has a well-developed plan for situations like this, and that he did not believe placing more officers at the venue would have prevented the incident.

Rather than increasing the number of officers present at events, Sardino said he thought the incident called for an increase in coordination and communication among organizations involved in putting on the event, such as DPS, student groups and student programming organizations.

“What we don’t want to do is create a burden or make an event that is so restrictive that students can’t have a good time,” he said. “To make something harder or cost more to have because of a few people is not really in the best interests of all of our students.”

Sardino emphasized that most student events take place without incident, and that many students were cooperative and even active in breaking up the fights on Sunday.

“I hope it doesn’t have an impact on students that weren’t involved in the fighting,” he said. “They would be the people hurt by canceling programming.”

The incident will not affect future Student Association funding for dance parties, said Comptroller Stephen DeSalvo. He said he does not plan to hold The National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, the primary sponsor of the event, accountable for what he viewed as a one-time incident.

“If this were a recurring thing, then we might have to re-evaluate the funding of such events but at this time, I do not think that is necessary,” he added in an email.

DeSalvo said NALFO received $2,112 in funding to cover the venue, DJ, ticket fee and kiosk for advertising purposes.

Sardino said he personally hopes the incident would not limit future student events.

Said Sardino: “I think that the more programming that we have for students, the better off the students are and the community is.”

Published on February 6, 2013 at 1:05 am