DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – University System of New Hampshire trustees say they support swifter, stronger discipline against students who riot.

But students say the disturbances have become a spectator sport, and they doubt any official actions will deter drunken students from gathering in the streets and egging each other on to acts of vandalism.

“I don’t know of anyone who runs out of their room saying, ‘I’m going to destroy property!”‘ said sophomore Karie Schelfhaudt, 19. “And I don’t know of any sober people who were down there.

“People were just trying to get the drunken people to throw stuff so they could watch them get arrested,” she told the New Hampshire Sunday News.

Seven men ages 18 to 22, including six UNH students, were arrested Thursday night on charges of felony riot after a crowd of 2,500 surged onto downtown streets following the Red Sox loss to the Yankees.

Some students threw bottles and rocks at police, while others fired paintball guns. There were no serious injuries.

John Lynch, chairman of the Board of Trustees, called the students’ behavior “intolerable” in a statement Friday.

Lynch said the university system trustees would support tougher measures and quicker disciplinary action against the small minority of students who are “ruining the environment for the rest of the UNH community.”

“We are dealing with young adults, but adults nonetheless. They must be held responsible for their actions,” he said.

“Those students must either change their behavior quickly and dramatically, or they will be aggressively prosecuted and sanctions will be imposed, up to expulsion from the university. This current situation will not continue.”

UNH freshman Jeff Gagnon, 19, said that rioting after major sporting events has become a sport in itself.

“The school’s known for it, and people turn out who don’t even watch the games,” he said.

Sophomore John Byrns, 20, said the rioting is a fad that will probably pass, but he doubts that anything the administration does will help.

“The more the administration tries to stop it, the worse it’s going to get,” he predicted.

He also said the administration’s attempt to provide an alternative by offering pizza and drinks in a campus courtyard was a good idea, but it backfired because it was held too close to the downtown area.

“The way they set up the party was just fueling it,” he said. “People came and got drinks and pizza and headed downtown.”

Freshman Hannah Raymond agreed.

“It actually did a bad thing because it brought people outside and together,” she said.

When police pushed the rioters away from downtown, they surged into the courtyard where the official party was being held and began overturning trash cans, students said.

Some students said they stayed away from the downtown area because university officials had warned that rioters could be videotaped and punished.

“We were told that if they saw us down there, they’d report us to the police and write us up. We felt like we were in jail,” said junior Marc Hall, 20, who watched the disturbance with three friends from his dorm room.

AP-ES-10-19-03 1336EDT