Thursday, November 8, 2012

A Matter of Discipline

Pike Party just (barely) off campus

UMass certainly cannot complain about the high number of noise, nuisance, open container and underage drinking citations handed out by the Amherst Police Department in their ongoing war against rowdy behavior.

Although I think our flagship institute of higher education was a tad lenient on some of the 652 students who garnered the attention of our police department last year for their obnoxious off campus behavior (only 5 were expelled).

But it seems to be a different matter altogether when infractions takes place on campus.  According to head disciplinarian Enku Gelaye (more formerly known as Dean of Students), a total of 2,818 students recieved sanction last year with 2,342 of them on campus (83%) vs 476 off campus (17%). 

Now yes, UMass houses 12,400 students on campus (45% of total) but that leaves 14,869 (55%) -- the majority  of the 27,269 total students -- to find housing elsewhere.

Simply put, less than half of UMass students (those who live on campus) garnered 83% of official sanctions handed out by our flagship of higher education last year.

Considering Amherst police cited or arrested 652 students during that same time frame for bad behavior off campus, it certainly seems the town pays more attention to these students than does UMass.

Not exactly what Fox News would describe as "Fair and balanced."

Back story

 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

love what you're doing. I went to UMass as an undergrad and partied a fair amount. 4 years later, I'm back with my new family- husband, 1 year old daughter,- to work on a graduate degree and find living in Amherst intolerable due to the regular noise and disruptions. The Halloween weekend left us, already sleep deprived parents, on the edge for a week, we had to travel to catch up on rest. I must have called the police 4 times a night that weekend.
I wish something tangible could be done to "zone" residential neighborhood and prohibit realtors from renting to student. I also think that any neighborhood that has at least one residential house on it should qualify as fully residential.

Anonymous said...

The comment before mine is pure hypocrisy.

"I went to UMass as an undergrad and partied a fair amount."

So when you did it, it was fine. When other people do it, it's intolerable. I suppose the world should change to accommodate your lifestyle changes?

Minnie the Moocher said...

^^^^^Boom roasted! Get Her!

Larry Kelley said...

Now, now. Anybody who loves what I do deserves some slack.

Besides, she did say "fair amount" as opposed to singing the ditty "party all the time, party all the t-i-m-e".

Marquis Hunt said...

I would say there is probably a lot more to this than what meets the eye. Three things come to mind where the percentage is very skewed, albeit not defending the on-campus crowd:

1.Alcohol/drug sanctions on vs. off-campus - More than likely because of the security and policies of Umass between Res Life, the RAs/RDs and the police, there is a lot of oversight on-campus to these issues.

If there are Friday night drinking at Puffton vs. in Van Meter, sanctions are more easily had because of the authority of the RAs to discover illegal activity and manage it. Whereas off-campus there is no Umass authority if someone was drinking illegally in their own home (less found outside, drinking at a party etc.)

Also, activity off-campus is more macrocosmic, comprising of probably an equal amount of people partaking in these activities, but usually the gatekeepers (people who organize the parties, distribute alcohol/drugs) are the ones sanctioned, not the rest of the crowd that may also partake in these situations.

And the rest of the crowd can also be non-Umass students, townies, or even full-grown adults that may be under the radar. There isn't an RA in Puffton, only Amherst Police. And unlike management on-campus, a cop can't enforce the law in private areas, only react to when the law is clearly broken (ie: Party).

2. Noise/nuisance violations - Where a party may sanction 4-5 offenders out 100-200, noise violations could be given to individuals or groups of 2-3 in a dorm of only 10 people. The percentage in itself is based more on the logistics and public access of campus than on-campus students being more of a danger than off-campus students.

3. Underage & privacy. Similar to above, the culture of Umass, and most places in general with young people, is that they will drink. Private housing can mask underage drinking, and it usually can only be mitigated if in the open (party, public intoxication).

Underage drinking is way more easily caught on-campus than off-campus just due to the ratio and access of space of the people who enforce the rules (on-campus: RAs, RDs, student security, police vs. off-campus: police, maintenance people, neighbors).

Also, just based on the housing regulation, more students off-campus are of age than on-campus. And more off-campus students are more aware of the nature of Umass. Does it mean that they don't drink if they are underage or that they are more aware of how to minimize oversight? I feel the latter is more appropriate. And could explain the ease which with sanctions can be doled out on campus with a bigger, and more-inexperienced underage drinking population.

Also, due to recent incidences in the last couple of years and due to Umass progressing away from the party image, they are going to sanction a lot more on-campus, but they have very little power over their students off-campus.

Also, public statistics are not correlative to the nature of the game. A lot of criticism of Umass being one of the most dangerous schools in the country overlooked that many private schools don't even publish their sanction/assault statistics.

Good article, but comparing 40,000 people on the basis of sanctions which usually can be given out or encourage by non-law enforcement, and where there are areas that have little enforcement in general, is short-sighted. More information would be needed on type of sanctions.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to redistribute the statistics omitting underage drinking that it would even out a little.

Larry Kelley said...

Good analysis Marquis.

This article was just my first use of this new information, so I tried to keep it simple. Oftentimes I like to let the public document speak for itself.

UMass being essentially a "dry campus" certainly drives drinking off campus.

All the off-campus sanctions given out by UMass were a result of APD sending a list of arrests and citations to the Dean's office.

But what about all the AFD responses to on-campus ETOH (passed out drunk) students?

Carting drunk kids to Cooley Dickinson Hospital ties up our first responders who are then not available for other life threatening emergencies.

Those students should receive a sanction over and above the ambulance bill.

Perhaps Enku, the Dean of Discipline, should accept feedback from landlords and neighbors who could report violations (like operating an unlicensed bar in the basement) or vandalism or urinating/vomiting on lawns, etc.

Anonymous said...

"I wish something tangible could be done to "zone" residential neighborhood and prohibit realtors from renting to student. I also think that any neighborhood that has at least one residential house on it should qualify as fully residential." Red state talk....all you liberals and do gooders....your proposal would be unconstitutional and discriminating

Anonymous said...

dont live in amherst if you have a problem with noise. its so self explanatory its not even funny. if you went here and still live here your a loser.

Anonymous said...

So we must accept a lower quality of life in Amherst. We should have known that when we moved here. They will not adjust their behavior, because these college years of fun and revelry don't last forever.

Let the real estate buyer in Amherst beware.

That's what they're telling us.

Do they actually listen to themselves? Their parents should be embarassed.

Anonymous said...

"dont live in amherst if you have a problem with noise. its so self explanatory its not even funny. if you went here and still live here your a loser."

A loser, huh? Well at least that person is a literate loser, unlike yourself, who struggled mightily to put 3 sentences together.

Are you in college son or just hanging around hoping people think you are a student?

If you are in college, when do you anticipate you will learn how to punctuate?

Aw, forget it. Just go drink yourself under the table and puke on your jeans, again.

That seems to work pretty well for you, and it puts off reality, which can be a long, dull run at times.

Sasha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.