Leaving behind a tradition of protest-fueled riots, most riots today are a result of a simple desire to riot, said an ISU faculty member.

David Schweingruber, assistant professor of sociology, pointed out several examples of campus unrest in U.S. history. He said most campus riots have been protest riots, such as students rioting against the Vietnam War. This has changed during the 1990s and 2000s, however, since riots unrelated to protest have become more common.

During his lecture Thursday, he presented several campus disturbances that happened before the April 18 Veishea riot. There were seven noted disturbances starting in 1985 leading up to the riot in 2004.

One reason given for these disturbances at Iowa State and other campuses across the nation is that they were a result of the deprivation-frustration-aggression theory, he said. This theory suggests students are being restricted by rules like the drinking age and the couch ordinance, he said.

He said he found no evidence supporting the theory as a reason for the riot.

“People who are more deprived are not more likely to riot. The leading rioters are young white males, and young white males attending a university are not the most deprived people in the United States,” he said.

Schweingruber also explained the characteristics of non-protest campus disturbances.

“There’s this common-sense notion that if students are happy, there will be less of a chance of rioting. I don’t think it’s true; that’s because there is no evidence of it here and it’s a national trend,” he said.

According to a survey of Schweingruber’s fall Sociology 134 class, Introduction to Sociology, 23.8 percent of the males and 10.5 percent of the females in the class agreed they would like to participate in a riot during their college years. Also, 48.9 percent of males and 27.6 percent of females agreed they would like to watch a riot during their college years.

Schweingruber said this survey can’t be representative to the rest of the university, but it shows a lot of people want to riot.

“If a lot of people want to riot, there’s not a lot we can do to stop it,” Schweingruber said.

According to a chart presented in his lecture, the number of non-protest campus riots in 1985 was fewer than five, and by 2002 it was up to 30. According to Schweingruber, rioting is a trend.

“It’s like streaking. There are a few streakers today. At one time streakers were popular — there were streakers all across campuses all across the country, all around the world. Then it got boring and people stopped doing it,” he said. “And now there are a lot of college students who want to riot, and they do it, and they have fun with it.”

“There’s this idea that everyone thinks it’s because of this lack of community, but in reality all of the studies of riots in the past show that’s not the reason why, but we really don’t know why at the same time,” said Megan Farmer, graduate student in sociology, after the lecture.