No one wanted the horrific events of last weekend to occur.

Yet after a knife fight, a nearly fatal attack and numerous other crimes that were reported over the weekend, we have to ask ourselves, why?

Many students living in the residence halls feel that the severe security measures taken by NIU were at least partially to blame. With barricaded streets and students unable to return to their buildings after having left, students complained they were confused about where they could go and felt trapped inside their residence halls.

This problem was exacerbated by the fact that it was the end of the week, and not only did many students have few dining dollars remaining, but the increased security made it very difficult to procure food, forcing residents to walk long distances in the dark to obtain ordered food.

One can’t blame NIU for trying to take added precautions in a time of precedented chaos. With the NIU and DeKalb police out in full force, there was enough mayhem to keep both busy all weekend.

Perhaps the real root of the problem was a lack of foresight in the community’s planning. There was the Homecoming game, a Convocation Center concert that brought in many people (some from out of town), a dance at the Rec center and Greek events like “Yell Like Hell” all occuring at once. The result was a mix of many different groups in one place at one time. Add mass amounts of recreational drinking to this situation and DeKalb suddenly became a lot less safe and more difficult to monitor.

Hopefully, the community will plan next year’s Homecoming with a more acute sense of its risks, instead of combining strict lockdowns with overzealous event-planning.