Cinco de Mayo Celebrations Have Some Local Officials Nervous

So what if UNH doesn't have classes that day. It's a 'study day'. I'm sure the students will all have their noses in their textbooks.

Officials and police in Durham are hoping to avoid a re-occurrence of what took place during last years Cinco-de-Mayo celebration. Namely, that close to 3,000 students were partying in the streets and it took the police the better part of the day to quiet things down. It was during a 'study day'.

This year, guess what? UNH has once again scheduled their 'study day' on May 5th.

According to an article at Fosters.com, Durham Police Chief David Kurz is worried this year might be worse than last year:

“I had a meeting with a number of UNH officials … we haven’t been able to convince them there is a correlation between off-campus bad behavior and study days,” he said. “This May 5, I’m thinking of it as somewhat of a perfect storm. We are receiving significant social media chatter that UNH students are planning on ‘partying all day’ and we are taking these postings as serious.”

I love the idea that UNH officials don't believe that students couldn't be out and about on a Spring day perhaps causing mischief instead of staying in and studying.

UNH has decided to host a campus wide cookout with staff on the lookout for any behavior issues. Sounds like a chaperoned high school dance.

Well, good luck to all involved. I hope the students keep it to a dull roar, I hope the police have the man power needed, and I hope UNH officials open their eyes.