Oct 21, 2014 3 min read

After a weekend of mayhem in Morgantown by students at West Virginia University, Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston proclaimed such behavior is “not acceptable” and that “we’re going to hold people accountable.”

That was in March 2012, when St. Patrick’s Day and spring break celebrations degenerated into the bedlam that has become all too readily associated with Morgantown and West Virginia University. Undoubtedly fueled by alcohol and, more than likely, a belief that pandemonium is as much a part of WVU traditions as the rendition of John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads” before the start of every home football game, students went on another rampage Saturday after the Mountaineers pulled off an upset victory over the fourth-ranked Baylor University squad. In what has become a well-worn ritual, mobs laid siege to parts of Morgantown, ripping down lampposts, slinging rocks and beer bottles at firefighters, police and other law enforcement officials. They started fires, with surely a couple of couches being reduced to kindling, as per Morgantown’s conventions when it comes to pandemonium. Police responded with pepper spray, billy clubs and rubber bullets.

Of course, it was all captured on social media, making it easier for police to catch the worst offenders and, as we have seen again and again over the last couple of years, tarnishing the image of West Virginia University. Despite a highly regarded mining and engineering program, performing arts programs that have won plaudits and a medical school that educates doctors and researchers who ply their trades within the Mountain State and beyond, West Virginia University is perhaps best known for the obnoxious behavior of its sports fans, the hard-partying nature of its students and the chaos that erupts on a predictable basis. It’s not much of an advertisement for the university or the state.

Residents of Morgantown and taxpayers must also be wearying of having their own peace and quiet shattered and their taxpayer dollars being used to pay for policing, clean-up and repair after rioting.

Preston, again having to face the press after quelling the Saturday night commotion, called for “a culture change” and that “we have to begin to act like we have won a game before. We’ve had a reputation and we’ve tried to live down to that reputation instead of living up to who we are and where we should be.” WVU President Gordon Gee, who knows a thing or two about overseeing a mammoth football program after having previously been president of Ohio State University, said much the same thing, proclaiming that it was “not acceptable Mountaineer behavior” to “set fires, tear down fences or throw bottles at police … it demeans the achievements of our institution and its faculty, staff, students, alumni and our Morgantown community.”

Though he has vowed to “create change,” Gee hasn’t suggested any specifics. We will be looking with great interest to see if any are forthcoming in the days and weeks ahead.

Though he and other university officials can’t be held responsible for the behavior of every student on campus, they must aggressively fight the notion that vandalism and lawlessness are just another part of the WVU landscape.

The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va., put it well on its editorial page: “Morgantown needs to work on its victory dance.”