The Student Program Board gave students a chance to release their inner ninja Wednesday during their annual flash mob. | Kendra Berglund/The Daily Cougar
Imagine being on your way to class somewhere near the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building only to discover about 100 students fighting.
That’s exactly what happened Wednesday.
The Student Program Board organized a flash mob Wednesday where a red ninja and a black ninja split students into teams and fought each other.
Students found out about the flash mob by way of Facebook. On the event page, there were specific instructions for how the flash mob would happen. For those who missed out, it left many students both excited and confused.
The ninjas arrived outside the PGH breezeway at noon; immediately following their arrival, students approached the ninjas saying, “I accept the mission.” The ninjas then passed out little pieces of paper with further instruction. At 12:20 p.m., the ninjas called all the students to follow them.
Nearly 100 students filed their way from the PGH to the Charles F. McElhinney building. The students separated into their appropriate ninja groups where the black ninja laid down some ground rules.
Although the ninjas would be fighting, neither physical contact nor props were allowed for safety reasons.
After the two groups met in front of the McElhinney building, they parted ways and each group marched toward the E. Cullen building where the red ninja and black ninja stood in front of the fountains with their respective group behind them.
They stared at each other for 20 seconds, bowed, struck a ninja pose – and that’s when the chaos began.
The two groups ran toward each other and began to “fight.” The two groups “fought” for about 30 seconds before all 100 students simultaneously fell to their “death” in defeat as a finale to the performance; after which, they causally got up and walked away. It was over in less than a few minutes.
Students who were involved in the flash mob said they were excited. One particular student even said she was skipping class to participate.
Armin Suni was on the black ninja team. He said it was fun to be apart of the flash mob and he believes that his team won.
“We killed the (red team) emotionally, they’re going to be talking to a shrink for many years after this,” Suni said.
Sophomore Michelle Antosh said she was a part of the flash mob last year that was featured on YouTube. She is proud of UH for getting recognition for doing student organized activities like flash mobs.
Freshman Adrian Hobbs said he really liked the concept of flash mobbing because it enabled students to interact with one another and “live life.”
No ninjas were injured during the “fight.”
Coming from Virginia Tech where I dealt with a gunman on campus during fall semester, bomb threats during spring semester, and another gunman on campus who killed 32 of my fellow classmates, I do not see the humor in this at all. The screaming and rumors caused by this makes this one of the most childish and irresponsible things I have seen yet at UH. This was highly unnecessary.
You’re not understanding the point of why this was taken place. This is just an activity that we do to encourage involvement, and interaction with students. Also, a way to just let lose and have fun. Onlooking students thought of this as being hilarious, and others confused, but in the end it was just harmless excitement. Now, I am extremely sadden about the Virginia Tech accident, but this has not an ounce of comparison to it. This was planned to let lose, not cause threats.