UConn Spring Weekend Celebration Ends Quietly

UConn’s Spring Weekend, traditionally a multi-day celebration drawing thousands of revelers, was especially subdued in 2011.

UConn police said the usual Saturday night party at X-Lot, a large, open parking lot located near the center of campus that often serves to cap the end of the multi-day party, simply didn’t happen.

“There were no gatherings in the area previously known as X parking lot,” a release from the UConn police department said.

UConn police reported only 17 combined arrests occurring Thursday and Friday and none Saturday. In 2010, UConn police made 39 criminal arrests during the last day of Spring Weekend and 84 during the entire event, according to a press release from the department.

State police from Troop C in Tolland reported only one Spring Weekend-related arrest from Saturday, a DUI in Mansfield.

A few key circumstances contributed to the tame nature of events over the weekend. These include the de-escalation policy promoted by the university, town and both UConn and state police and the Easter holiday falling on Spring Weekend.

The death of UConn student Jafar Karzoun, who was killed in an altercation with non-students during last year’s Spring Weekend, likely contributed to policy changes as well.

“This reduction in the number of arrests can be attributed to the implementation of the recommendations of the UConn Spring Weekend Task Force, the support of several UConn student groups, and the support of the UConn student community in observance of the moratorium and changes to de-escalate Spring Weekend,” the UConn police’s release said.

UConn’s Vice President of Student Affairs, John Saddlemire, expressed a similar sentiment towards the student body.

“The lion’s share of the credit for this goes to UConn’s students,” he said in a press release. “While UConn police were very effective in keeping outsiders off campus, the vast majority of students also respected what was a voluntary moratorium and either chose not to participate or went home for the weekend."

Especially firm rules restricting non-students from campus and the roads surrounding it, as well as a firm rule barring guests from residence halls, kept overall attendee numbers down as well.

The reduction in activity and arrests is remarkable given the UConn Huskies men’s basketball team’s NCAA championship win on April 4. The team’s previous two championships, won in 1999 and 2004, led to especially intense celebrations by Spring Weekend attendees in those years.

For some students and other attendees, the de-escalation policy meant a decentralization of the party atmosphere. While each evening of the bacchanalia was previously focused on a single area close to (but not on) campus where thousands of partygoers convened, students in search of merriment spread to off-campus living areas further from the heart of UConn’s campus or left town entirely.

Tyler Wagoner, 21, who attended UConn and still lives in the area, said a sense of familiarity – a “seen-it-all, done-it-all” mentality – combined with de-escalation efforts made upperclassmen more likely to head further away from campus or not participate at all.

“I didn’t go to any of the regular spots,” said Shannon Wright, a senior at UConn. “Everybody tried to create their own Spring Weekend at different spots.”

Wright said the police presence was heavy on and around UConn, which discouraged students, especially those not living on campus, to seek different locations and activities.

Wright lives off-campus in Cedar Ridge apartments, located in nearby Willington. She estimated that between those two sets of apartment buildings, predominantly occupied by students, a few hundred people turned out on Thursday and Friday night.

Those celebrations occurred despite warnings about hosting parties from the buildings’ management, although Wright said she hadn’t heard of any repercussions felt by those in her apartment complex.

Wagoner wasn’t especially pleased with the lack of festivities, as even UConn-sponsored events formerly held during Spring Weekend took place over the preceding weeks. He wanted an approach that reduced the possible harm but retained the tradition of celebration.

“That’s what they really needed to do – make it safer,” he said.