The University's Ad Hoc Committee on a Civil, Safe and Open Environment expected the seats to be full in Holland Hall at the College of Law, Monday night. Committee members scheduled their first public forum last week, but law student David Kerner said he was surprised by how few people were there.

"The day after the event, there were a few hundred students out on the street," he recalled. "But when it came time to actually provide input into the process and make a change, there was only one, two, maybe three students here and that was disappointing."

Despite just over a dozen people in attendance, Committee Chair Kim Tanzer said as far as she was aware, word of the meeting was disseminated through the proper channels.

"Sometimes you ask them very far in advance and not too many people can come," she explained. "Sometimes you ask them the day before and many people come. It's just very unpredictable."

The committee will have its initial finding prepared for U.F. President Bernie Machen by the end of December. Some fans of University events however worry the committee could suggest policy changes based solely on the publicity of the September incident.

"I would hate to see that this committee feels that they have to produce all these results of changes rather than just saying that the system's not broken," Gainesville's Joe Courter said. "This was just an odd occurrence that probably won't ever happen again."

By Ted Latiak, WCJB TV20 News.