EDITORIAL: A bittersweet Ivy League victory

A day that should have been a celebration of Penn unity was marred by poor decisions. This weekend's clinching of the Ivy League title -- and the completion of a Penn tradition that goes along with the victory -- is a memory students will cherish for years to come. It's just a shame that the administration and Penn Police failed to live up to their responsibilities. Though the police had an admittedly difficult job of having to make sure an inherently unsafe event occurred safely, they ultimately made the situation worse than it ever had to be. Minutes into the game, it was clear that Penn was going to win and students were intent on tearing down the goal posts. With police swearing to stop students from even rushing the field -- which they clearly didn't have the manpower to do -- there was an unnecessary adversarial relationship from the start. Considering how rare it is for students to demonstrate any kind of campus pride, it's all the more surprising that administrators didn't go to greater lengths to find a way to channel students' enthusiasm -- or at least make sure they stayed safe. Instead, police officers in riot gear marched onto Franklin Field -- with some security guards and officers by many accounts gesturing at students -- and turned a would-be unifying victory into an embarassing students-versus-administrators fiasco. But the greatest error in judgment came when administrators discovered that they could not stop students from tearing down the goal post. Instead of helping to keep the celebration organized and safe, officials continued to hope in vain that the students would remain confined to the field. As a result of the blockage of the southeast gate -- the one closest to the Schuylkill River -- students carrying the goal post had to use the northwest exit, more than doubling the distance to the river and vastly increasing the risk to property and students' safety. In addition, locking all field exits presented a safety hazard with so many students running around. In the end, police coordinated the tossing of the goal post into the river by stopping traffic and guiding students as they approached the bridge. Had officials demonstrated this attitude throughout the celebration, they likely could have avoided some of the chaos and increased the spirit of community. Now that the celebration is over, it's time to move on. We hope that University officials don't make arrests based on videotapes of students tearing down the goal post. It simply doesn't make sense to hold a few students accountable for something thousands of people were involved with. There's also a lesson to be learned for the next time the Quakers win the Ivy title. Administrators and students should work together to design a realistic approach for post-game celebration -- one that acknowledges that a goal post will come down, or that students will at the very least storm the field, yet protects everyone's safety. Students shouldn't have to fight the administration and police to show their Penn pride.