It was all for a girl. Francis Massa, a freshman from Washington D.C., had hoped to win the affection of a cheerleader when he made the alias “Connor Smith” and created the Facebook event that drew thousands to rave in Charles V. Park Library on Monday night. “I like her a lot and that was the reason,” he said. “Our motivating factor was to reach out to more people and for me to reach out to one girl.” Also behind the flash mob was Massa’s three Campbell Hall roommates — Michael Gnass of Byron Center, Jus- tin Gawronski of Macomb and Cody Gonyeau of Sault Ste Marie. All are freshmen with the exception of sopho- more Gonyeau. The planning began sometime last month. Gnass said they originally wanted to make an impact and be known. Most have since consid- ered the flash mob a success though Massa’s attempt to win the girl’s heart was not. “She said she was disap- pointed; it wasn’t what she expected for somebody to try and win her heart over,” he said. “She literally just de- leted me on Facebook.” Gnass said they were sur- prised to see that they had about 4,000 people in only two days. Police and library fac- ulty picked up on the event through Facebook chatter and immediately looked into raves and how to han- dle it. “I did a lot of research because I had not been in- volved with a rave or flash mob before,” said CMU Chief of Police Bill Yeagley. “It’s the newest phase and generation has their latest fad to create their own tradi- tion.” Orion senior Nick Bryce used his video camera to capture his crowd-surfing-journey from the library entrance to the second floor. As of 11:40 Tuesday morning the video had been played 461 times on Vimeo.com. CM Life’s video has been viewed more than 1,000 times. “I was pretty scared going up the stairs when I got close to the edge,” Bryce said, “but everyone supported me.” Gerald Edgar, manager of library business, said the gate scanners counted 1,488 people moving through the interior doors. But he guessed there was a good 200 to 300 students still outside in the hall. “It doesn’t count the people who were already in the build- ing and were standing by the rail,” Edgar said. “You could probably guess about 2,500 people were involved in the rave, but it’s really hard to tell.” By 7:45 p.m. a large crowd was already gathered outside in the cold by Finch Fieldhouse. A Harrison Township senior, who identified only as Spider-Man and was dressed to match, posed for photos. Like many of the students, it was his first rave and he said he was wearing his Halloween costume. “I’m just out here to have a good time,” he said. “Every- one’s going to know Spider-Man was out here.” SPECIAL EDITION | VIDEO OF FLASH MOB AT CM-LIFE.COM [Vol. 91, No. 44] Mount Pleasant, Mich. Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 STuDENTS SINg, DANCE, PArTy IN rAVE A FLASH MOB | 2 THOUSANDS FLOOD LIBRARY FOR FLASH MOB Story by Mike Nichols Senior Reporter Jeff Smith/Staff PhotograPher A student dressed as “Green Man” crowd-surfs Monday night across the estimated 2,500 students who flooded Charles V. Park Library as part of a flash mob to help relieve exam stress. Jake may/Photo editor St. Clair Shores senior Jordan Freiburger reacts as hundreds of students in the lobby carry him across a sea of hands Monday night in the Charles V. Park Library. Behind the scenes: Organizers tell all of plans A THE CREATORS | 3 By Mike Nichols Senior Reporter E pic. It was what many have called the stunt of the semester, after thousands of stu- dents flooded Charles V. Park Library Monday night for their own “end of the semester party.” They raved, threw rolls of toilet paper and beach balls and let shredded study guides fall from the library’s higher floors like rain. The rave was originally planned through a Facebook event as a flash mob, which oc- cur when a large group of people gather in a public place to perform a unique activity and then quickly disperse. As of 7:30 p.m. Monday night 6,025 people marked that they were going to attend with 2,712 saying that they “might attend.”
Transcript
It was all for a girl.Francis Massa, a freshman
from Washington D.C., had hoped to win the affection of a cheerleader when he made the alias “Connor Smith” and created the Facebook event that drew thousands to rave in Charles V. Park Library on Monday night.
“I like her a lot and that was the reason,” he said. “Our motivating factor was
to reach out to more people and for me to reach out to one girl.”
Also behind the flash mob was Massa’s three Campbell Hall roommates — Michael Gnass of Byron Center, Jus-tin Gawronski of Macomb and Cody Gonyeau of Sault Ste Marie. All are freshmen with the exception of sopho-more Gonyeau.
The planning began sometime last month. Gnass said they originally wanted to make an impact and be
known.Most have since consid-
ered the flash mob a success though Massa’s attempt to win the girl’s heart was not.
“She said she was disap-pointed; it wasn’t what she expected for somebody to try and win her heart over,” he said. “She literally just de-leted me on Facebook.”
Gnass said they were sur-prised to see that they had about 4,000 people in only two days.
Police and library fac-
ulty picked up on the event through Facebook chatter and immediately looked into raves and how to han-dle it.
“I did a lot of research because I had not been in-volved with a rave or flash mob before,” said CMU Chief of Police Bill Yeagley. “It’s the newest phase and generation has their latest fad to create their own tradi-tion.”
Orion senior Nick Bryce used his video camera to capture his crowd-surfing-journey from the library entrance to the second floor. As of 11:40 Tuesday morning the video had been played 461 times on Vimeo.com. CM Life’s video has been viewed more than 1,000 times.
“I was pretty scared going up the stairs when I got close to the edge,” Bryce said, “but everyone supported me.”
Gerald Edgar, manager of library business, said the gate scanners counted 1,488 people moving through the interior doors.
But he guessed there was a good 200 to 300 students still outside in the hall.
“It doesn’t count the people who were already in the build-ing and were standing by the rail,” Edgar said. “You could probably guess about 2,500 people were involved in the rave, but it’s really hard to tell.”
By 7:45 p.m. a large crowd was already gathered outside in the cold by Finch Fieldhouse. A Harrison Township senior, who identified only as Spider-Man and was dressed to match, posed for photos. Like many of the students, it was his first rave and he said he was wearing his Halloween costume.
“I’m just out here to have a good time,” he said. “Every-one’s going to know Spider-Man was out here.”
SPECIAL EDITION | VIDEO OF FLASH MOB AT CM-LIFE.COM
S T u D E N T S S I N g , D A N C E , PA r T y I N r AV E
A fLash Mob | 2
ThoUsaNDs fLooDLIbRaRY foR fLash Mob
Story by Mike NicholsSenior Reporter
Jeff Smith/Staff PhotograPherA student dressed as “Green Man” crowd-surfs Monday night across the estimated 2,500 students who flooded Charles V. Park Library as part of a flash mob to help relieve exam stress.
Jake may/Photo editorSt. Clair Shores senior Jordan Freiburger reacts as hundreds of students in the lobby carry him across a sea of hands Monday night in the Charles V. Park Library.
Behind the scenes: Organizers tell all of plans
A The CReaToRs | 3
By Mike NicholsSenior Reporter
Epic.It was what many have called the stunt
of the semester, after thousands of stu-dents flooded Charles V. Park Library Monday night for their own “end of the semester party.”
They raved, threw rolls of toilet paper and beach balls and let shredded study guides fall from the library’s higher floors like rain.
The rave was originally planned through a Facebook event as a flash mob, which oc-cur when a large group of people gather in a public place to perform a unique activity and then quickly disperse. As of 7:30 p.m. Monday night 6,025 people marked that they were going to attend with 2,712 saying that they “might attend.”
Central Michigan Life || Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 || 3
IN A FLASH
An estimated 2,500 students rushed into Charles V. ParkLibrary Monday night to relieve exam week stress,
become part of a party atmosphere for an hour
Jeff SMith/staff photographer
Thousands of CMU students cheer Monday night as they flood Charles V. Park Library. “The flash mob was epic,” said Midland freshman Derek Herman. “It’s cool that it was organized by students. We did this.”
Jake May/photo eDitor
A CMU student is tossed around by hundreds of people while crowd-surfing Monday night at Charles V. Park Library.
Sara WinkLer/staff photographer
Thousands of students raved throughout Charles V. Park Library on Monday night. Students
came in with toilet paper to stream across the crowd, tore up notes to drop from the third
and fourth floors as confetti and crowd-surfing became a regular ordeal.
adaM paStuzyn/staff photographer
Torn papers lay across the second and first floors of the library after the hour-long party.
Thomas Moore, dean of libraries, estimated 2,500 students were in attendance at the flash
mob rave Monday night. “This is just awesome. Look at how many people are here,” said
Armada senior Dan Gould. “I can’t believe this. Seriously, this should happen way more
often. This is what it’s all about.”
Jeff SMith/staff photographer
Battle Creek junior David Hanson studies for a calculus exam Monday night as thousands of CMU students fill Charles V. Park Library during
a flash mob organized by students on Facebook. “I have my iPod on, and I’m just kind of ignoring it,” Hansen said. “This is ridiculous.”
Sean proCtor/staff photographer
Thomas Moore, dean of libraries, looks up toward the fourth floor as he watches the flash mob rave unfold Monday night.
GONE
Around 8 p.m., people outside surged into the library to meet an already gathered crowd, which became so packed that people were pressed against the glass doors, and some were never able to get inside.
No ravers, however, were allowed past CMU Police Officer William Martinez, who blocked off the second floor stairway.
“We’re just here for everybody’s safety,” he said. “As long as nobody gets hurt, it’s all OK.”
Alison Timinski said she couldn’t believe how many people were inside the library as she found herself flow-ing with the crowd up the stairs.
“This is so cool,” the Ludington freshman said. “I’ve never seen this many people here.”
By 9 p.m., participants had dispersed.
‘Could Have been better’The rave was a distraction for those students who
were only in the library to study for finals. Josh Brown, a Grand Blanc graduate student, said he was there to fin-ish his paper and had little interest in the thousands of screaming students only feet away.
“I really don’t care as long as nobody bumps into me,” Brown said. “I’m too old for this stuff.”
Police stopped speakers from being brought into the library, preventing music from playing. To compensate, students entertained themselves with other means such as singing, glow sticks and, of course, crowd-surfing.
St. Clair Shores sophomore Sean Vandaele took the entertainment to a new level when he jumped from the stairs into the crowd below him. He said the lack of mu-sic was a disappointment.
“It was awesome that they got this together, but we kind of needed some music,” he said.
Eastpointe freshman Rachel Boertmann agreed. “I did not think that it was very good because there
was no music,” Boertmann said. “It was a great crowd, but it could have been better.”
Dean of Libraries Thomas Moore said they concluded to let the police supervise the rave, but allow the students to enjoy it.
With so many people sup-porting it, he said it was best to just let it happen and “be re-garded as successful.”
“If that many people want to do it,” Moore said, “we’d rather let it happen than to become so restrictive that effectively we’d have to shut down the library to the disadvantage of all the peo-ple who wanted to study.”
laCk of notiCeYeagley said police tried to lo-
cate a “Connor Smith” through the university listing before the event, but had not been able to.
With the lack of prior notice, he said a DJ was turned away and music left unavailable.
“You can’t bring 5-foot speak-ers into the library without prior notification,” Yeagley said. “It’s hard to reach out and talk to
someone when you don’t know who they are.”
Both Moore and Yeagley said they would have been other-wise willing to allow music.
Gonyeau said he thought the faculty and police were worried about safety, though he thought it would have been safer if they had let them play a song and let everyone get it out their sys-tem.
“Had the overtures been re-sponded to and there been discussions about ground rules, music would have been available,” Moore said. “That didn’t happen. The result of which was the police and we all thought it advisable that when they brought speakers in we say no.”
The group in Campbell had been reluctant to reveal their real names out of fear they might get in trouble for plan-ning a rave.
But Tony Voisin, assistant dean and director of Student Life, said no one should be too worried since there was there was no criminal activity.
“I’m not out looking to build any case against anyone or do any investigation,” Voisin said. “There’s not been any com-plaints that we’re working with and I’ve not heard that there was any damages.”
Police and the library report-ed no property damage or lar-ceny, which Moore said he was thankful for.
Gerald Edgar, manager of library business, said he in-spected the aftermath and found everything in tact.
“I went around the building pretty thoroughly and I’ve had no one report anything to me today,” Edgar said. “I think we got away pretty lucky. “
Moore thought that overall it went well. Something he ap-preciated was how a handful of students stayed afterward to clean up the mess left by the mob.
“It tells me that some people who participated said, ‘It’s not as clean as it was when we started so let’s see if we can doing something about it.’” he said. “I thought it was very nice.”
