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Posted on Wed, Mar 28, 2012 : 4:14 p.m.

Freeze experiment draws amused crowd to University of Michigan Diag

By Kellie Woodhouse

One student sat perched on his bicycle, as if he would soon start pedaling. Another clutched her cellphone to her ear, a look of surprise glued to her face. Two more — a male and a female — stood embracing, the woman's foot frozen in the air.

They stood like this for five minutes, participating with roughly 150 University of Michigan students that gathered on the Diag, froze in place at 2:33 p.m. Wednesday and resumed normalcy five minutes later. The event — dubbed 'Freeze on the Diag'— also drew hundreds of students last year.

The hardest part, many participants said, was not laughing when passersby looked on in confusion.

"I loved the reactions," said senior psychology major Paul Lee, who participated in the event. "Some people were really surprised, confused or startled. Overall people were just happy and excited to see it happening."

"It didn't seem too awkward or forced," Lee continued.

Senior English and communications major Ashley Gork looked on as her peers froze in place.

"It's interesting," she said, with a laugh. "You can see people's reaction: there's confusion and a lot of smiles."

As Gork stood watching, the Diag quieted from it's usual buzz of activity as students — the unfrozen ones, at least — tried to work through their confusion.

"It's really cool. It's a way to get people to notice you," said freshman Emily Bodden, who was on the Diag during the freeze but did not participate. "You can only be handed a flier so many times before you stop paying attention."

Freshman Amanda Wylie participated in the freeze and said she'd be happy to do it again. She found out about the freeze through news reports and social media. Although she participated, Wylie said she didn't know what freeze organizers were trying to accomplish.

"I just know Ann Arbor is a quirky place," she said.

Lee, a member of Do Random Acts of Kindness, the student group that planned the freeze, said the reasoning behind it is simple.

"We're just doing it as a means of spreading good cheer on campus," he said.

Freshman Dominic Farchione agreed, saying the event "is a cool U-M community thing."

Added sophomore economics major John Li: "It's exam time and people are stressed, so its a chance for people to chill out, relax and be a part of something that's funny."

Dozens of colleges have attempted wide-scale freezes, including Penn State University and Michigan State University.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.

Video was produced by Danny Shaw.

Comments

SalineBob

Thu, Mar 29, 2012 : 4:52 p.m.

I'd cramp up after about one minute. Seems to me instead of standing still for 5 minutes why not just spend that time doing an actual random act of kindness? I guess it's too deep for me. If I did that at work they'd call an ambulance and someone would comment "Well--he's finally gone catatonic". Although that approach did work out pretty well in the end for Cameron Frye.

Jim

Thu, Mar 29, 2012 : 3:15 p.m.

On Sunday, everyone's going to freeze for 2 hours at 4:20 pm. But I think that's just called "couch lock".

jimmymac

Thu, Mar 29, 2012 : 11:43 a.m.

Neat. Looks like fun, too. I'll bet this becomes an annual event.

West Park

Wed, Mar 28, 2012 : 10:26 p.m.

I'm glad that they had a nice day to "Freeze". More video here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV8mJj5wAN4

Morris Thorpe

Wed, Mar 28, 2012 : 9:06 p.m.

That is very cool. Good job to the participants. Hey, a2.com, 360p video? I think that if you're going to promote "With Video" on a story, then spring the 70 bucks and get an HD camera. Time to retire the calculator used to shoot this.

ThaKillaBee

Wed, Mar 28, 2012 : 9:58 p.m.

Yeah, put your monthly subscription payment to good use! Er....