Colorado State, City Officials To Coordinate Following Incident
Tuesday, September 9, 1997
FORT COLLINS--Colorado State University officials today
announced plans to cooperate fully with Fort Collins city
officials following the arrest of two people at a large gathering
just north of campus late last night.
Fort Collins Mayor Ann Azari said today that she appreciates
the cooperation of the university and pointed out the incident is
a community issue and not a student issue.
"I don't want to see a situation where anything bad that
happens is blamed on the students. This is not a student issue--
this is an issue of some community members behaving
inappropriately," Azari said. Azari also said she plans to work
with university administrators and student representatives, in
addition to the community at large, following the incident.
Keith Miser, vice president for student affairs at Colorado
State, said that the university will work closely with city
officials and police to identify any students who were involved
and will take appropriate disciplinary actions. Miser did point
out, however, that last night's incident is very unusual.
"This type of problem is very rare, and in fact we consider
ourselves fortunate to have as good a relationship as we do
between our students, the local police and the community as a
whole," Miser said. "We will now do everything we can, working
together with the community, to make sure this type of thing does
not occur."
Police were called last night at around midnight for noise
complaints in the area just north of the university campus. As
police tried to break up the several parties in the area, some of
the more than 500 people gathered resisted and threw bottles and
rocks. One large fire was started with debris in the street.
"From talking to fellow students, it is clear that this
isn't just a student issue, but rather something that involves
many members of the community as well. However, its also clear
that some students were involved and we as students, as part of
the larger community, must take a share of the responsibility for
that," Steve O'Dorisio, president of Associated Students of
Colorado State said. "We now need to take the next steps and work
to communicate and to deal head-on with some of the issues in the
community as a whole."
O'Dorisio said that it is important to note that the
incident was not linked in any way to an official student
gathering or to any fraternity or sorority event.
Miser said the university and students will continue to work
with the city to prevent further incidents.
"It's important for us to respond accordingly to this
incident and to continue to work together to prevent this type of
problem, while at the same time understanding that this kind of
behavior is not something our students are usually involved in,"
Miser said. "This was an unusual and isolated incident."
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