All for a girl, the makings of Monday’s flash mob in Charles V. Park Libary

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It was all for a girl.

Francis Mass, a freshman from Washington D.C., had hoped to win the affection of a cheerleader when he made the alias “Connor Smith” and created the Facebook event that drew thousands to rave in Charles V. Park Library on Monday night.

“I like her a lot and that was the reason,” he said. “Our motivating factor was to reach out to more people and for me to reach out to one girl.”

Also behind the flash mob was Massa’s three Campbell Hall roommates — Michael Gnass of Byron Center, Justin Gawronski of Macomb Township and Cody Gonyeau of Sault Ste. Marie. All are freshman with the exception of sophomore Gonyeau.

The planning began sometime last month. Gnass said they originally wanted to make an impact and be known.

Most have since considered the flash mob a success though Massa’s attempt to win the girl’s heart was not.

She said she was disappointed; it wasn’t what she expected for somebody to try and win her heart over,” he said. “She literally just deleted me on Facebook.”

Gnass said they were surprised that they had about 4,000 people in only two days.

Police and library faculty picked up on the event through Facebook chatter and immediately looked into raves and how to handle it.

“I did a lot of research because I had not been involved with a rave or a flash mob before,” said CMU Chief of Police Bill Yeagley. “It’s the newest phase and generation has their latest fad to create their own tradition.”

Dean of Libraries Thomas Moore said they concluded to let the police supervise the rave, but allow the students to enjoy it.

With so many people supporting it, he said it was best to just let it happen and “be regarded as successful.”

“If that many people want to do it,” Moore said, “we’d rather let it happen than to become so restrictive that effectively we’d have to shut down the library to the disadvantage of all the people who wanted to study.”

Lack of notice

Yeagley said police tried to locate a “Connor Smith” through the university listing before the event, but had not been able to.

With the lack of prior notice, he said a DJ was turned away and music left unavailable.

“You can’t bring 5-foot speakers into the library without prior notification,” Yeagley said. “It’s hard to reach out and talk to someone when you don’t know who they are.”

Both Moore and Yeagley said they would have been otherwise willing to allow music.

Gonyeau said he thought the faculty and police were worried about safety, though he thought it would have been safer if they had let them play a song and let everyone get it out their system.

“Had the overtures been responded to and there been discussions about ground rules, music would have been available,” Moore said. “That didn’t happen. The result of which was the police and we all thought it advisable that when they brought speakers in we say no.”

The group in Campbell had been reluctant to reveal their real names out of fear they might get in trouble for planning a rave.

But Tony Voisin, assistant dean and director of Student Life, said no one should be too worried since there was there was no criminal activity.

“I’m not out looking to build any case against anyone or do any investigation,” Voisin said. “There’s not been any complaints that we’re working with and I’ve not heard that there was any damages.”

Police and the library reported no property damage or larceny, which Moore said he was thankful for.

Gerald Edgar, manager of library business, said he inspected the aftermath and found everything in tact.

“I went around the building pretty thoroughly and I’ve had no one report anything to me today,” Edgar said. “I think we got away pretty lucky. “

Moore thought that overall it went well. Something he appreciated was how a handful of students stayed afterward to clean up the mess left by the mob.

“It tells me that some people who participated said, ‘It’s not as clean as it was when we started so let’s see if we can doing something about it.’” he said. “I thought it was very nice.”

studentlife@cm-life.com