Apparently the now infamous “riot” started when some Towers residents began yelling at one another from their dorm rooms late Wednesday night.

It was innocent enough, just some rowdy students yelling across the courtyard, egging one another on. Not a particularly unusual experience.

But when students grew bored of this, the party moved outside to the courtyard area in the center of the Towers. Still, no illegal activities were taking place; at worst, it was just some loud yelling before quiet hours.

But the night was still young, and apparently Towers residents wanted to continue their celebration outside, not a surprising decision, considering it was one of the warmest nights of the year.

Since the incident, some have estimated the courtyard crowd to more than 300 students. But that doesn’t even account for the large numbers of students hanging out their windows, shouting and chanting some derogatory statements involving DPS officials, President Martin Jischke, the concept of an alcohol-free Veishea and pleas to female students to remove their shirts.

Some of the more obnoxious and immature students even decided to try and pull down a lamp post. Their mission was almost immediately disbanded.

Was this incident obnoxious to some or the party of the year to others? Certainly. But, as some people have chosen to call it — was it a riot?

The answer is no.

It was a certainly a disturbance to anyone who happened to be studying out at the Towers that night. It was certainly a bunch of rowdy, somewhat immature students blowing off some steam and releasing pent-up energy. But it was definitely not a riot situation.

Despite the claims that the “disturbance” (as DPS has chosen to label it) was the result of students banding together to protest dry Veishea and the lack of Comedy Central on TCI, it was not a protest. Despite the students who decided the gathering wouldn’t be complete without attempting to tear down the lamp posts, it was not a riot.

And despite all other comments about how the incident makes Towers residents look bad, the incident itself really isn’t that surprising. It was simply college students at their best, worst and most quintessential.