All hell broke loose late Saturday night on West Campus, but University of North Carolina students were nowhere in sight.
The foam party was over, the campus had quieted down, most students were back in their dorms and the police had begun to remove the equipment from the celebration that had taken place immediately following the basketball game.
Suddenly, just past 10 p.m., a roar erupted from a mass of students who had gathered outside Wayne Manor, where they were trying to burn the first bench of the evening-the first in a series of incidents that kept the police and the students in a constant state of confrontation until the early morning hours.
The students acted in the name of tradition while officials acted in the name of safety. The two, not surprisingly, failed to complement one another Saturday night.
The scene has been described as mayhem, as explosive and combative, but no single word can convey the energy and the determination-both of the students and the enforcement officials-that overwhelmed the campus after the Blue Devils' victory over the Tar Heels.
More than 1,000 students ran from one end of West Campus to the other and back again all night, setting benches on fire, igniting portions of Krzyzewskiville and hitting almost every quadrangle on West in the process.
"This is a long-standing tradition and we're pretty determined to continue it," said Engineering senior Ryan Barker, who witnessed the scene. "It's a standoff. If it's not today, it will be tomorrow."
Sigma Nu blasted "F--- the Police" by Rage Against the Machine while a mass of students in front of the section closed in on approximately eight enforcement officials and yelled taunting phrases. Officials, who had seemed to keep the crowd relatively under control for the earlier part of the evening, were overwhelmed.
"Tonight went real bad," said Durham firefighter Frank Adams, who was one of the officials surrounded by the mass. "We were just trying to keep them from starting a bonfire. We were just outnumbered."
Around midnight, students doused the House B bench in gasoline and ignited it to get the attention of police, who were clad in helmets with masks, armed with handcuff-like devices and pepper spray, while students on Clocktower Quad moved the Mirecourt bench to the center of the quad to start a larger bonfire that never managed to get off the ground.
Each time students started a fire, police were on the scene seconds later to quell the flames.
Some students carried commons room furniture into the middle of quads, while others looked for larger items to toss into the flames. Tent 11, otherwise known as the K-ville shanty, was set aflame, while a reclining chair that had been transported to the area for more a comfortable tenting experience was burned down to its metal frame and lay in the middle of the sidewalk in a billow of smoke.
By the end of the evening, both students and officers suffered injuries, many students had been arrested and taken to Campus Police headquarters and both sides were worn out. Smoke alarms were triggered in several dorms around campus, and all the fires had left the scene engulfed in the scent of smoke.
"It's a very dangerous situation," Trinity sophomore Brad Kimmel said. "Tonight was Duke students at their best and the administration at its worst."
By the end of the evening, though clearly outnumbered, police managed to extinguish every fire that students started, despite students' efforts to divert their attention elsewhere.
Few were happy with the situation or the outcome.
"I'm not as much overwhelmed as I am disappointed," said Sgt. John Daily of Campus Police, as students were leaving the scene. "This was obviously not a celebration."
Many students, including Duke Student Government officials, blamed the contentious atmosphere on the enforcement officials who, they said, contributed to the tension between the two instead of working with them.
"A lot of people have questioned why the police are here with all their equipment. People are just revolting," noted DSG President and Trinity senior Lino Marrero. "They should've just let us have [a bonfire] in one spot. Foam from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. was not going to compensate for a bonfire."
Several members of the administration were also on the scene, including Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Sue Wasiolek, who was hit with a water balloon discharged by a slingshot from a dorm room.
"I enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate and relish in the victory, but that feeling and spirit did not last very long because of the adversarial nature of the evening," she said. "My goal is for people to have fun and celebrate in a safe way, and in the past, our major challenge has been with fire. Our approach was to eliminate fire, and what resulted was a combative situation."
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