Video of campus snowball incident goes viral

A snowball fight organized by the University of Oregon football team on campus during Friday’s snowstorm took an ugly turn Saturday when the student newspaper, The Daily Emerald, posted a reader video online.

The video shows students and football players pelting a car with snowballs in front of the Erb Memorial Union. The driver of the car, who some on social media said is a UO professor, is then seen getting out of the car as he confronts the students and is nailed with one snowball after another.

The UO released a statement on Twitter Saturday night, written by UO Dean of Students Paul Shang, that said the UO Police Department is investigating the incident and “police hope to determine the identities of those who were throwing snowballs, whether they are UO students and whether their actions constitute a criminal act.

“The University of Oregon takes the conduct of its students seriously. Consequences are clear for those whose actions reflect poorly upon the university or violate its standards for student behavior. However, until the facts of the snowball-throwing incident are sorted out, it would be premature to speculate about any potential outcomes in this case.”

The video quickly went viral and had more than 51,000 views on YouTube as of late Saturday night. It also generated more than 4,500 comments on the social media sites Redditt and Twitter, many of them critical.

Andre Yruretagoyena, a UO offensive lineman, posted this on Twitter: “Embarrassed by the video I just watched. That’s not all of us, sending the sincerest apologies.”

The Daily Emerald reported on its website Saturday that “Reddit users are accusing what they believe to be the UO football players of ‘committing assault/battery, and vandalism.’ Some have stated that they are sending emails to the UO administration as well as the UO head football coach to ask for disciplinary action for the students involved.”

Connor Willemsen, a UO student in the university’s Robert D. Clark Honors College, sent an email to local media and Shang on Saturday night in which he wrote in part: “I am horrified to think that this could happen to anybody on UO’s campus, a place where I normally feel safe. It is especially disturbing that the older gentleman in the video was assaulted upon getting out of his car to try and simply get the attackers to stop.

“My shock turned to horror as the video progressed. Not only did I recognize where it happened, a place I pass every day, but I imagined such an assault happening to me or worse, one of my friends or loved ones at the University. I’m left with a sickening combination of fear, anger at the perpetrators, and shame to be part of a University community in which such an event can transpire.”