Drinking, Alcohol Policy, and Attitudes Toward a Campus Riot

Major Substantive Conclusions

Because Enjoying the riot is the best measure of participation, our findings imply that Alcohol Consumption, which had the greatest total effect on Enjoyment, was the most important contributor to participation.

On the other hand, the effect of Objecting to Restrictions was also substantial in two ways. First the direct effect of this variable on Enjoying was substantial. second, the errors of prediction for Condoning and Enjoying had a correlation of .353. Whereas part of this correlation is the effect of Enjoying on Condoning, another part is the effect of Condoning on Enjoying.

Although willing participants are necessary for a riot to occur, the other attitudes we measured are also important determinants of what will happen. Aside from one's own attitudes toward a behavior, another important determinant of behavior is one's perception of the normative beliefs of others (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). Thus, those who express approval of riots serve to encourage others, even if they do not directly participate. Moreover, if they are bystanders, they may prevent law enforcement from controlling the situation.

Some writers view riots as apolitical rampages, whose participants, typically young males, are motivated by a search for excitement and the thrill of seeing that they can "make things happen" (Banfield, 1968; Bolce, 1982). In contrast, others view some riots as politically motivated protests or rebellions against what they perceive as injustice (Caplan & Paige, 1968; Feagin & Hahn, 1973; Sears & McConohay, 1973).

Our analysis gives partial support to both views. Our results and newspaper accounts indicate that drinking behavior was related to enjoyment and participation. But, the riot was also a protest, against the university and the city, for their restrictions against alcohol.

Campus Policy Implications

In order to derive such implications, we coded the responses to open-ended questions that asked how to prevent future riots (intercoder reliability consistently exceeded 0.80). We found that respondents were equally divided between punitive strategies (more severe penalties for rioting, and increasing police interventions) and conciliatory strategies (e.g., easing restrictions concerning alcohol for undergraduate students, and improving communication with students).

In the ensuing years, the university, and city have followed both strategies. On the one hand, over 120 participants were tried and their punishments typically included jail time, fines and suspension from MSU. In addition, MSU has increased the number of alcohol-free social activities available to students.

On the other hand, the university and East Lansing city government have attempted to improve communication with students so that the students have more of a feeling that their views are taken into account. They have created the Community Relations Coalition (CRC), a nonprofit organization, which works to build trusting relationships between permanent residents and off-campus students (Community Relations Coalition, 2004). Activities include a dispute resolution/community mediation project and the continuing placement and development of Neighborhood Resource Coordinators (often student interns) who work on projects of the CRC.