Around the city, state, nation and world, former and future Buckeyes alike have responded in masses to the post-Michigan rioting last weekend.
Media coverage of the events has compelled hundreds of viewers to write to the university. The general message from the public has included embarrassment, disgust, a call for an apology by the rioters and action by the university.
“I support OSU 100 percent in expelling all students that embarrassed Ohio State and the city of Columbus,” wrote alumnus Jeff Miller.
E-mail messages from former Buckeyes reaching all the way from the United Kingdom and Switzerland made their way to the already overflowing inbox of Lee Tashjian, vice president of University Relations.
“We’re receiving one after another, after another,” Tashjian said.
But one local letter captured his attention. Sherry Cashin, mother of a high school senior at St. Ignatius in Cleveland, wrote to Tashjian on Monday.
In her e-mail, she said, “OSU has been permanently and irrevocably eliminated from our consideration for college for our son. In fact, it was his decision to no longer pursue consideration of OSU after viewing the events of the past two days.”
Her son plans on majoring in biomedical engineering, and Tashjian said, “He’s the type of person we would want to have at OSU.”
Regrettably, OSU cannot look forward to adding him to the admissions roster next year.
“Based on the unbelievable lack of respect for people’s lives, safety and property, OSU can never be an option for our family,” Cashin said in her letter.
The riots have not deterred all high school seniors from considering OSU.
Gary Rasnick, a senior from Sycamore High School in Cincinnati, said the riots do not affect his decision on whether to attend OSU next year.
“I already had my mind set that I was probably going to come here,” Rasnick said. “And that didn’t bother me whatsoever — what happened here Saturday.”
Rasnick said he is not surprised by the rioting at OSU or anywhere else.
“You’re going to get people that are really excited over the win or the loss, and they’re just going to start tearing up stuff. There’s probably no way to prevent it.”
Laurie Keys, a senior from Elmwood High School in Wayne, Ohio, agreed prevention is futile.
“I think it’s going to happen anywhere,” she said. “And it could happen anytime.”
Keys’s mother, Nancy, was not as nonchalant about the safety on campus.
“It definitely makes me think twice,” she said about sending her daughter to OSU.
However, a determined Laurie said the good outweighs the bad when balancing her options at OSU.
“There are lots of good opportunities here,” she said.
But the repercussions of the riots do not last for a single day, at least not for OSU alumni.
Alumni based in New York share more than an alma mater. An unfavorable common bond of a riotous reputation now links them.
Alumnus Stanley Preston said he was the target of jokes when he walked into work Monday.
“My co-workers, having enjoyed my pleasure with the success of my Buckeye team, didn’t congratulate me as has been the case after each of our wins this season, but instead asked me if I had ripped the sod up in my yard and set fire to my garbage after the win.”
Now that OSU has become the butt of collegiate jokes, the university may struggle to be taken seriously again.
“While there were several riots throughout the country caused by excessive celebration, the riots at Ohio State took the headlines,” Preston said. “Ohio State puts winners on the field of life, but excessive celebrations such as these make the rest of the country believe that we don’t know how to handle success.”
Dan Lindner, an alumnus based in New York City, attended the game in Columbus and said he was welcomed back to work by a humorless confrontation.
“I have been constantly approached about the riots by my family, friends and coworkers. I have even been accused by my boss of being pictured turning over a car in the New York newspaper; it looks similar to me.”
Not all alumni are terribly disturbed, however.
David Hocevar, the president of the Ohio State Alumni Association of Phoenix, said he will remember the legacy of the 13-0 win over Michigan above the riots.
“I don’t think these riots will have a lasting effect on the team or the university,” he said.
Hocevar was a student at OSU in 1968 and remembers the infamous incident when students tore down the goal post and dragged it all the way to the Capitol Building. It’s history now. He said people will move on just like they did then.
