John Muir College senior Bryan Barton led a group of approximately 20 individuals who threw water balloons and squirted water from Super Soakers at councilmembers during public input of the May 5 A.S. Council meeting.
Barton came up to the podium alone during the public comment period, introducing himself as the founder of the Philosophy Forum, and explaining that he’d “been doing a lot of philosophizing about student governments.”
“A lot of people have told me that A.S. doesn’t serve them well,” Barton said to the councilmembers. “A lot of people have told me that the A.S. could be better served by a goat.”
At this point, an unidentified woman entered Price Center Ballroom, where A.S. meetings are held, followed by a goat held on a leash. Barton continued by saying that he was naming the goat his co-counsel and taking over the A.S. Council. Meanwhile, about 20 other individuals with covered faces holding water guns and balloons positioned themselves in front of the seated councilmembers.
“Please remove any electronic equipment,” Barton said. “In case you haven’t noticed, this is a coup.”
After councilmembers refused to get out of their seats by the count of five, all of the identified individuals started throwing the water balloons and spraying the councilmembers with water. Barton himself threw nothing, retreating behind the others with the goat, yelling, “The coup is a failure … the coup failed, I’m sorry.”
Some councilmembers laughed and asked Barton to leave the goat. A few councilmembers who left the ballroom in the ensuing confusion retaliated at Barton with stray waterballoons and a bowl of salad, at which point Barton was called aside by campus police officers. A.S. Adviser Lauren Weiner had called UCSD Police on her cell phone during the water fight.
Officer Scott Gustafson said that he offered to place Barton under citizen’s arrest if any councilmembers wanted to make a complaint, but none did so, and he was let go after questioning.
Barton claimed that the individuals covering their faces did not come in with him.
“Perhaps my words roused the people into chaos,” he said, adding that he thought most of the A.S. Council was fine with the “coup,” but not the administration. “The university doesn’t know how to have fun — they want to stifle all student activity.”
A.S. President Jenn Pae said the whole event was “sort of a blur.”
“It was quite interesting,” she said. “As long as no one got hurt … well, there are really no words to describe it.”
Other councilmembers said they found the display disrespectful and “ridiculous.”
“People literally felt unsafe,” said Daniel Gonzales, Student Affirmative Action Committee representative to A.S. “I’m in favor of people coming to call us out and challenge us to be better, but that kind of intimidation really bothered me.”
Gonzales added that he felt that this could deligitimatize the A.S. Council when they go to the table with the administration.
“They’re going to have this in the back of their heads, so that even if we’re doing something really concrete like asking for Triton Taxi to go online, they’re going to see this as us not having legitimacy with students,” he said.
According to A.S. Commissioner of Student Advocacy Jeff Boyd, the reports filled out by witnesses will be documented and sent to the Muir dean. If the matter isn’t resolved between Barton and the dean informally, it will go to a formal hearing.
Boyd said he didn’t know what charges could result from Barton’s actions, adding that it could be a tricky case because Barton himself did not launch any waterballoons or squirt any water onto councilmembers.
“We don’t have any established guidelines for this, because as far as I know, we haven’t seen anything remotely like this,” Boyd said.
Barton, who is editor-in-chief of The Koala, is a graduating senior.
“I thought it was a pretty good joke,” Boyd said, adding that it would be a nice tradition, except perhaps without wasting that much water. “If people remember that we’re all just students here … five years down the road, it’s not really going to matter.”
