Emerson To Stick with Policy

Emerson College said it is not significantly altering its approach toward student-participation in sports victory celebrations, even after a record $5.1 million settlement from the City of Boston for the death of Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove.

A Boston Police Department officer fatally shot Snelgrove, 21, in the eye with a rubber pepper-spray pellet on Oct. 21, 2004, as she and about 80,000 other fans celebrated the Boston Red Sox’s playoff series victory over the New York Yankees near Fenway Park.

As part of the settlement, which is the largest in Boston’s history, the city will also contribute $100,000 to a scholarship fund and a public memorial, said Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole at a news conference on Monday.

The death sparked nationwide media attention and prompted Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 to send out an e-mail the next day asking students to “celebrate safely and responsibly.”

In the six months that have elapsed since the incident, no dramatic changes have been implemented at Harvard or Emerson College regarding sports victory celebrations.

The incoming campus life fellow, Justin H. Haan ’05, said that the disruptive festivities usually take place in Boston, not in Cambridge.

At Harvard, celebrations have “been localized to small, and sometimes large, gatherings in the Square which have been quite well self-policed,” Haan said.

Even before Snelgrove’s death, Emerson College had sent an e-mail to its students urging them to act responsibly, said David M. Rosen, the college’s vice president for public affairs.

However, Emerson has not implemented any new procedures or disciplinary measures to prevent students from participating in celebrations, he said.

“College students are young adults who have to make responsible decisions about where to go,” Rosen said. “We can’t lock them in their dorms.”

Instead, Emerson has provided more specific advice to students in the wake of the tragedy, he said. For example, the college urges students to leave the scene of a rowdy disturbance even if they personally are not the source of the trouble, Rosen said.

He pointed out that Snelgrove was shot near Fenway Park and not on the Emerson campus, emphasizing that the incident was out of the college’s control.

“If the police go out and shoot a pepper-spray pellet into someone’s eye, there’s not much the college can do,” he said.

The college itself had set up viewing areas around the campus that featured big screen TVs and free food where students could go to watch the final playoff game, he said. Harvard held a similar event in Loker Commons in order to keep celebrating students on campus.

Rosen said that there has been no indication that college students were the cause of the ruckus.

“College students have taken a bum rap,” he said.

A police investigation found that Snelgrove had not been involved in the rioting and misbehavior, and was “in all respects, an innocent bystander,” O’Toole said.

Samantha J. Robertson ’07, who attended East Bridgewater High School with Snelgrove, remembered her from chorus and drama.

“It was a really tragic incident,” she said. “Everyone from high school was upset to hear about the way that everything happened.”