UConn’s Mac and Cheese Madness
Former University of Connecticut student Luke Gatti, 19, made international headlines when a video of him drunkenly harassing a cafeteria manager over macaroni and cheese became viral.
Gatti walked into UConn’s Student Union on the night of Oct. 4 with an open container of alcohol and requested jalapeno macaroni and cheese from food service workers, who denied him service due to his clear intoxication and openly consumption of alcohol in public while underage.
This is what prompted food service manager Dave Robinson to ask Gatti to leave, to which he responded with excessive profanity directed at multiple food service workers and continued to demand macaroni and cheese.
The video even shows Gatti shoving the manager twice. Later in the video, another food service worker pins Gatti down until police arrived to arrest him.
Watch the full video:
“He did lay his hand on another person, which was outrageous over something so simple as mac and cheese, but that's what happens when you're intoxicated I guess," said student Jovanni Michelangelo to WFSB Eyewitness News.
He has already been previously arrested at University of Massachusetts Amherst for drunken behavior. Gatti will face criminal charges for his actions at the UConn Student Union for breach of peace and trespassing, according to the Associated Press.
Many UConn students had a variety of opinions regarding Gatti’s actions.
Samantha Crystal, a sophomore at the University of Connecticut, said, “I just think it was blown way out of proportion, but that’s kind of to be expected with something like this that happens on a college campus.”
Another UConn student, Connor McCaffrey, had different thoughts on the situation.
“What he did was unforgivable. He made the choice to drink underage and he exploited it by walking into the union and wreaking havoc,” he said to WFSB Eyewitness News.
Luke Gatti himself also had something to say about the incident. He posted a video online in which he apologized for his actions.
“When I watched the video a few days later, I couldn’t even believe it was me in it,” adding, “I am ashamed of myself, I really am ashamed.”
Watch Luke's apology video:
Gatti is no longer a student at the University of Connecticut. Spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz says that she cannot disclose why he is no longer enrolled due to federal law. He will appear in Rockville Superior Court on Nov. 3 to answer for the charges.
