New rules curb campus rioting.

THE POST-GAME CAMPUS HAS BECOME TOO dangerous a place. All too often, students hyped from the big game have taken to rioting in their university towns.

The rioting, also known as fan violence, usually is done by white males who are more likely to act out when their team wins, not loses, according to Jerry Lewis, professor emeritus at Kent State University (Ohio) and a sociologist who specializes in such violence.

The University of Maryland recently closed a policy loophole that tied administrators' hands after a 2005 melee involving UM and Duke students. In the reverie after UM's win of an Atlantic Coast Conference basketball title that year, some students were caught setting a fire near campus. They were marshaled off to criminal court and received probation. But technically the university could not discipline the students because they were not convicted of a crime.

It has taken more than a year, but university regents have given authority to all 13 UM campuses to pursue disciplinary action without having to wait for cases to work their way through the courts.

"There have been serious injuries," Regent James Rosapepe told the media in response to the new decision. "There was hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage."--J.M.A.