Ernie's Towing. The calm after the storm
Moving 12,500 students on to campus in a short amount of time is bound to create a snafu or two.
Take the parking/no parking screw up on Labor Day where, according to the Mass Daily Collegian, 180 automobiles were towed from a parking lot (at $100 a pop) they had a valid permit sticker but were not aware UMass enacted temporary restrictions to accommodate the massive move in.
Best spin of the month (although it's still very early in the month) goes to Eddie Hull, the executive director of Residential Life: “I think you will agree that we did a good job in putting students in a position to be successful and avoid this unhappy circumstance.” Yeah, proper parking information is critical to putting folks "in a position to be successful."
Now if only UMass would put the more over-the-top rowdy students who besmirch the reputation of the flagship University in a "position to be successful" by expelling them, then maybe some of the party hardy types would take civility a little more seriously.
One of the more egregious Party House of the Weekend entries occured last November near the Amherst/Sunderland border, where 800-1,000 drunken party goers packed into a rental house assaulted heavily outnumbered members of the Amherst Police Department.
A serious line to cross.
But if you check with UMass people finder today, as I just did, three of the five are still listed as students (even one who was charged with "assault on an officer" and "resisting arrest"). Unacceptable.
A few months ago I asked UMass under Public Document Law for “an electronic copy of any and all internal written reports (made in hard copy or electronic) concerning discipline or suspension of any fraternity/sorority at UMass/Amherst since September 1, 2010.” Thus far they have stonewalled the request.
As former Chair of the Amherst Select Board Elisa Campbell pointed out on my Facebook page:
"I
think it is long past time for UMass to report to us - the citizens of
Amherst - the penalties they give out to students who act this way. I
recognize that they may not be able to list names - FERPA may apply -
although this is *not(* an academic
pursuit or record - but they can at least do press releases that say
"this weekend x number of students were expelled for bad conduct" or
whatever. As it is, they claim to have "consequences" for students who
behave really badly but we citizens never learn about it - why should we
believe it ?"
16 comments:
You neglect to mention that:
Hull said that an email went out to Lot 44 permit holders “almost two weeks” ago informing them of the change. In addition, he said that students were reminded of the closure at check-in, flyers were placed at entrances to the residence halls and the lots were barricaded.
There should be SOME mention that UMA didn't simply tow without warning.
I link to the Mass Daily Collegian and they mention it.
UMass has a Pr Flack department that consumes hundreds of thousands of $ annually to spin positive stories. Maybe they should have been enlisted to better communicate the parking situation .
Names should not be released, it is none of the town's business to see what the university does to such students as it is an internal matter. Punish the students through policing matters, and handle it through the courts. That is public information and should be published. What happens on campus should not.
If this practice goes through I would like to see all Amherst residents, upon a legal encounter, face ramifications at their job. Drunk driving? It should be published if you are fired or suspended without pay. If nothing happens, that as well.
Not to mention the continued partying shows that the noise violations are not working. Perhaps another alternative solution needs to be resolved, this time with student input.
I think that the administrators at UMass don't give a shit, about any of this.
When someone as measured as Elisa Campbell is expressing frustration about student behavior, we know that this problem is far more than the imaginings of a few local curmudgeons. The problem is strangling all kinds of initiatives here, including the construction of additional housing.
It may be unfair, but very few people are comfortable living close to these kids.
The University isn't an island. Our taxes subsidize the place. If you screw up, your name gets printed in the paper or on a blog. Here's a thought - If you don't want it printed on the front page of the New York Times, don't do it.
If you don't want it printed on the front page of the New York Times, don't do it.
OK.
But the University also agrees to release not only every employee discipline memo but also the full contents of every employee's annual review and all the paperwork relative to the tenure process.
Furthermore, "The U" and all the adjacent towns agree that any UM employee (including professor) will be summarily fired upon a complaint from the town that his/her/its property is in violation of any municipal ordinance. So if you haven't paid your property taxes on time or if your rental house is in violation of code, you get fired.
Oh, and if your teenagers cause any problems, you face the same sanctions that UM would give them were they UM students -- you are summarily fired. And if the union rep tries to advocate for you, UMass destroys him/her/it as they tried to destroy me.
From the guys on the loading dock to the deans, no one would tolerate this -- nor should they. And that, boys & girls, is what is wrong with doing this to the students because if UM can do it to them today, it can do it to you tomorrow....
Three other things...
First, at least half (and quite likely a lot more) of the problematic "UMass Students" aren't even UM students -- many of them are your own high school kids...
Second, the presumption is that kids in trouble with UM deserve to be -- and I think that Eddie Hull's towing 144 legally parked cars serves as clear evidence of that often not being the case.
And third, why is no one making an issue of the employees having fistfights on campus during working hours? That's gotta be at least as bad as urinating on someone's lawn, isn't it?
BTW -- you know all those cute rabbits and such that you enjoy seeing on your lawn first thing in the morning? Where do you think *they* urinate??? (They are mammals too and their urine is essentially identical to that of humans.)
To cowardly Anon Nitwit....
Yes your taxes subsidize the place. I will neglect that "island" bring more cash to town than your taxes will in a thousand years, but rather point out your encounters with law enforcement also are paid by public taxation. Once again does this mean your work punishment is published for all to see? No. It means that the relevant information regarding the public trial is published, but beyond that your right to privacy is expected.
You are not the parents of such students, you do not and shall not enjoy the private aspects of their university business. If you still believe so I think that any private business that uses public infrastructure, as my tax dollars pay for it, should publish repercussions for legal matters regarding employees on a blog. It's only fair, after all you pay more taxes to the town than to the university.
And Ed is correct. I can recall many a time when other students, be it Amherst College, Hampshire, Bridgewater State, MCLA, Westfield State, etc, snuck into small parties to become trouble makers, retreating under the security of the crowd. The worst of such was when several Amherst high students were caught with fireworks.
I think that the administrators at UMass don't give a shit, about any of this.
Agreed. A simple fact -- when fully built, the new dorms by Boyden will house 6500 kids, which is 1500 *more* than all of Southwest, on far less land!
I don't care if they are honors students, they will still break up with girlfriends/boyfriends and have all the other difficulties of youth, they will still locate Liquors 44 -- the only likely difference is that they will use better grammar while screaming at 2AM....
Think about this -- 1500 more kids than the known-problematic Southwest packed in so tightly that they had to pre-place the steel for the buildings they are building later before they started the ones they are building now...
Its all about the money.
Its all about the money folks -- for the local area to remain rural as people want it, it can comfortably support a UMass about the size of Westfield State -- except that the revenue necessary for what a lot of people want to do requires probably 30,000 students.
So it is like the Kabob Deer, they admit far more students than the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and of course there are problems -- and they really don't care.
They'll crucify a few students to mollify critics like Larry but you will see less and less of that because I am hearing that it is starting to worry about the number of crucified kids who now are suing and terrified that eventually one won't settle, won't sign the nondisclosure agreement and instead will go to a very public trial that the Collegian will cover.
Part 2
When someone as measured as Elisa Campbell
Eliza is a person who did (and still does) her job very well and she is one of the people who helped me graduate from that purgatorial cesspool. And I need to make it clear that because she is a known public figure, I am using her to illustrate a point and this isn't directed at her personally. Moreover, excepting emergencies and friends in trouble, I don't much appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night either...
The simple fact is that had UMass only had 7000 students, either Eliza or someone else wouldn't have been hired at "The U" and wouldn't have had a job at the UCC/UCS/OIT all those years, and wouldn't have a state retirement check coming the first of every month now. Further, a smaller UM wouldn't have the money to hire her back as an "03" - for a job which she does very very well.
Now the real Eliza may be independently wealthy with trust funds and everything else -- I neither know nor want to know. But UM is the largest employer in Western Mass and conceptual Eliza represents an awful lot of people who have everything they have as a result of their employment at the university.
I am not saying they didn't/don't earn it -- as legitimately critical of "Planet UMass" as I am, I also personally know a lot of folk there who are quite competent and are working quite hard, who very much earn their money and deserve to be paid more than they actually are.
But the simple fact is that no employer can hire people with money that he/she/it does not have. Reality is that if UMass only had 6000 students, there is no way that it could ever have 6000 employees, which is about what it does have.
So people want both -- a university without lots of students for a peaceful/quiet community, and a university with a lot of students for the money they bring, and that is the problem....
It may be unfair, but very few people are comfortable living close to these kids.
Emphasis on kids which is what they are -- in a greying Amherst that creates issues similar to a 55+ retirement community where "kids" are not allowed. How many homeowners are in their late 20's and early 30's -- not in Amherst they aren't because what were "starter houses" in the 1970s are now well into the six figures.
Notwithstanding this, it is the same issue of people who want to see an airport expanded, economically profit from the expanded airport, and then build a house at the end of the runway and complain about jet noise.
Adding an extra runway to the airport is like increasing the number of students at UMass -- people in town will profit, but there is going to be more jet noise.
Young people inherently are going to be loud -- and folks living next to large numbers of them should anticipate noise.
And two other points here -- if you have flunked out of UM, or know that you will be flunking out, do you (a) go home or (b) stay in the apartment (that you are legally required to pay for) and have a good time for the rest of the semester/year?
And second, UM is a political entity. Some of these parents have both money and connections -- and we won't even get into PIKE. It is rumored that it cost $30,000 to get an expelled student back into UMass and to make all the paperwork go away -- allegedly you make the donation to the institution and allegedly this is done in return.
I can say this: UM is legally spineless and quietly settles everything as quickly as possible -- it may be $30K in legal fees for a libel/defamation suit which UM quickly settles -- and for some of these parents, $30K is little more than a bar tab, assuming that the lawyer isn't a family friend pro bono.
There are an increasing number of kids on that campus who know that their parents can (and will) get them out of *anything* (including rape allegations) and while Enku is setting mindboggling records in the suspension and expulsion area (not to mention the 70+ involuntary psych commitments and related medical withdraws each year), some of the truly problematic people are also untouchable. And know they are.
Ed, why are you still here. I thought you graduated. When will you be leaving this cesspool to get on with the rest of your life?
Ed is surprisingly right on about this one. Enku has clamped down, not to mention the police. While it is easy to characterize the town police as totalitarian at times there were events in which I have been threatened over nothing, and I have never had a negative police encounter otherwise be in anywhere I have ever lived. (I once received a verbal warning at 17 for going 34 in a 30).
The one I remember best is when they shut down the bus routes to Puffton, meaning I had to hike to campus. After printing a 3 by 5 poster (on the effectiveness of catalysts in certain solutions) and walking back to my apartment in Puffton I was stopped by the police and security on the perimeter. The reasoning? I was a student and I had a laptop bag and a poster. A bag in which beer could have been held. After opening the bag I wasn't even thanked, they just went back to talking.
The town uses a Vietnam style mentality of combating students. Instead of setting up a perimeter and containing students there, the town let's student housing pop up randomly. This is problematic, because the rowdy students receive a meaningless fine and face no direct criticism from their students. Rather the neighbors peek from behind their curtains and complain to one another. Fines are paid, anger rises, parties continue. Rather the town should encourage student-resident interaction, and encourage student life in certain areas IE the perimeter around campus). But that would mean the high-brow citizens of the town would, the good lord forbid, have their stereotypes shaken.
When will you be leaving this cesspool to get on with the rest of your life?
When my book is (a) published and I have (b) completed my book tour obligations to the publisher.
The state and its citizens pump millions into the university, its pride, for academics, and let's face it, for sports, and then scratches its head when behavior gets out of hand. And we spend all our time blaming the students, the young people away from home. What's wrong with this picture? We spend millions just we can follow UMass football and basketball. At least our priorities in proper order?! We, the caretakers of these young people. At least we're doing OUR job. At least we're blaming the right people.
I agree with Elisa Campbell. And then those numbers without names should be be shot straight back to Boston so the legislators and ALL the people of the commonwealth can see the consequences of their pride and joy in Amherst. In the abstract it's beautiful, and many students do get a good education, but nobody really wants to see how the sausage is made. But it's going to be hard to stop the legislators when their constituents are pounding on the table for winning basketball and football teams. Every parent and citizen that attends a game should also have to spend the weekend picking up beer cans.
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