Several of the students arrested Saturday after rushing the field during half-time of the football game against University of Pennsylvania said they were unaware of the consequences of their actions.
Hanover Police released Monday the names of the seven students, all of whom were charged with criminal trespassing.
Sgt. Chris O'Connor said the freshmen -- Matthew Burke, Myles Bingham, Sylvie Hogg, Robert Mullins, Angela Scott, Mark Shahinian and another who is under 18 and whose name police would not release -- will be arraigned in Hanover District Court on Oct. 12.
He said the charge is a violation punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 but added that students convicted in previous years for rushing the field have usually been fined $100.
But Mullins said he was more concerned with disciplinary action he will face from the College.
"I had no idea it was considered so bad," he said. "I had no idea the police would be so involved and less of an idea that the school would take it so seriously."
All four of the students reached during the past two days said they were unaware they would be arrested and face College discipline. Attempts to speak with the others whose names were released were unsuccessful.
"I just thought they'd escort me off the field and out of the stadium and that would be it," Bingham said.
In past year's incoming freshmen have received letters from the Freshmen Office explaining the tradition of rushing the field and the consequences of doing it, as well as informing students of the dangers and the injuries the practice has caused during previous years.
But Dean of Freshmen Peter Goldsmith said even without the letter, students should have seen the presence of Safety and Security officers and Hanover Police as indications of the severity of the offense.
"It would surprise me if they failed to notice the Hanover Police and Safety and Security officers who were attempting to keep [students] in the stands," Goldsmith said. "Their gestures and words were unambiguous."
On Monday, Goldsmith told The Dartmouth he thought the letter was this year because unnecessary because he thought the "problem had subsided."
"If I had known the consequences beforehand there is no way I'd even consider [rushing the field]," Mullins said.
Burke said he was told about the tradition before the game by upperclassmen but said they didn't mention anything to him about the consequences.
Shahinian said a letter from the Dean "may have swayed my action."
"The main difference between this year and last year was not the absence of a letter on the subject but the highly organized provocation by upperclass students," Goldsmith said.
While he said a letter might have deterred some students from rushing the field, "my sense is there are just as many, if not more who are given an idea [in the letter] of engaging in a behavior they otherwise would not have engaged in."
The four students said rushing the field was a spontaneous decision, adding that they did not know all the others who charged the field.
The group jumped down from the stands near the end of half-time and raced across toward Leverone Field house. O'Connor said the students could not leave the stadium and at least one was caught while trying to escape over a fence.
"I heard everyone around me screaming to rush the field," Bingham said. "Everyone around me was like 'yeah go, do it, you'll have the best time.' "
Others said upperclassmen chanting "rush the field" contributed to their decision to do so.
During the beginning of half-time, a group of freshmen moved down in the stands toward the field, where Hanover Police and Safety and Security officers told students not to rush the field, Bingham said. Several students jumped down onto the track but were turned back by the officers.
But Bingham said they did not tell students about the possible consequences of rushing the field.
The other students said they were not down near the field while this was happening but moved down right before charging onto the field.
Goldsmith said the tradition of rushing the field evolved from one in the 1960s when freshmen formed a tunnel under which the players ran while taking the field for the second half of the game.
In the late 1970s and into the 1980s he said students began running across the field and up the opposite side of the stands, a practice that resulted in many serious injuries to both students and fans. Last year, a member of the Yale Marching Band was injured when a student collided with him while charging the field during a half-time show.
"Seven or eight students rushing the field is serious, but doesn't represent the danger that 200 or 300 rushing the field poses," Goldsmith said. "Should the crowd grow to a couple of hundred it becomes a very dangerous group."
O'Connor said rushing the field was a "safety issue" and one Hanover Police must prevent.
"We don't want to scar anyone's record for the rest of their lives ... we're hoping to send a message that we just won't tolerate it," O'Connor said.
O'Connor would not specifically say a plea bargain was possible, O'Connor said he would be "more than willing to discuss" the arrests with the students.
