Sorority event disrupted by thrown bottles

Zeta Phi Beta President Sheree Thompson was in the midst of celebrating her sorority's newest pledges Wednesday night when she heard loud noises and saw something falling from a High Rise North window. Although the College senior could not identify what had fallen, she realized that students were throwing items such as bottles and water balloons at the sorority sisters. And in a related incident, two residents of the 13th floor of HRN said a group of black men barged into their rooms, looking for signs that the residents were responsible for the thrown bottles. University Police Capt. John Richardson said he could only confirm that one bottle was thrown, and could not connect it to the sorority event. But Thompson said there was no doubt in her mind that the items were thrown at those celebrating. "They were throwing it directly at us," Thompson said. "We didn't want anyone to get hurt by anything coming out of the windows so it ended our celebration." University Police was aware that the event, slated to last about half an hour, was scheduled to take place in Superblock, according to Richardson. Sorority sisters and others who participated in the celebration denounced the high rise residents' actions, saying that the incident marked another example of campus racial problems. "I felt like I was in the 1960s trying to sit at a lunch counter," College sophomore Shelise Williams said. "A lot of people say black people are segregating themselves by living in DuBois, but we can hold cultural events at DuBois and not worry about anybody throwing anything at us." And Engineering junior Jerome Hairston, who attended the celebration, said the University community is "showing itself to be intolerant once again." College sophomore Alex Birnbaum, who lives on the 13th floor of HRN, said she heard a pounding on her door at around 11 p.m. Tuesday. When she opened the door, she found a group of black men standing outside her room. "This guy came into my room and went to the double and was looking around in the back," she said. "I stepped into the hall and saw 10 people at least -- they said there were people throwing glass and they were just checking it out to see what happened." Birnbaum's neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous, was also approached by the group of men. She said she had just come home and saw the group of students coming into HRN. According to the HRN resident, they approached the front desk and were allowed through without signing into the building. But Richardson said the men must have been University students since they could not have entered to the building without a PennCard. Birnbaum said after finishing the search of her room, one student knocked on and then opened Birnbaum's neighbor's unlocked door and searched her double room as well. "The guy sticks his head in, looking around, suspecting that one of us threw something out the window," the HRN resident said. Wharton junior Arthur James, who attended the celebration, said the reaction to the event was typical. "Stuff like this happens all the time whenever there's a small celebration and it happens to be a black organization," James said. "I was surprised that someone threw a bottle but I wasn't surprised people reacted." Daily Pennsylvanian reporter Julayne Austin contributed to this article.