After initial speculation that the University's new "three strikes" noise policy would target undergraduates' social lives, students have expressed satisfaction with the administration's implementation of the policy as the number of incidents has decreased significantly.
According to Director of Greek Life Rob Turning, the revised version of policy has had clearly positive results. "From the statistical point of view," he said, "the number of calls is way down. It's very rare that I get a security report."
According to Dorothy Sheppard, associate dean of students, only three total "strikes," or incidents of violation, have been reported this year, as opposed to the "12 or 14" by this time last year.
Turning further attributed such improvements to the newly created position of student-community liaison, currently filled by Carrie Bennett. Hired by the University to help calm relations between students and residents living in the community, Bennett monitors parties and communicates any complaints from neighbors to the students.
Said Sigma Alpha Epsilon President Brian Kinsella of Bennett, "She's awesome. She works with us to make sure we are doing things right with our neighbors. ... She's like a fail-safe; she saves us before anything happens."
Nick Black, president of Alpha Delta Pi, agreed. "If someone does call, she lets us know and we make changes, instead of them coming and getting us in trouble."
Though some students acknowledge that the initial announcement of the creation of her position made them wary, most now say they feel positively about the job Bennett has done.
"When the policy first came out, I thought the school was trying to be very overbearing," says Phi Kappa Psi President Timothy Kernan. "But seeing it in action, seeing that the school isn't going around trying to break up parties, it seems to be working out," he added.
The community as a whole seems to feel comfortable with Bennett as well. In the small amount of time she had before fraternities started regularly holding events, Bennett says she made sure to meet with community leaders, attend meetings and get the word out as best she could about who she was and what she intended to do. And while community members continue to call campus security with issues, they are now typically rerouted to Bennett's cell phone so that she can address the problem directly.
Director of Student Involvement Jeff Groden-Thomas said, "I think the community sees that the University is making an effort, so it is helping our community relations and contributes them not responding in the way that they have to noise coming from student homes. They see that the University is trying to respond with a liaison, so their initial reaction isn't to call the police or to create a much more dire situation."
While Bennett's presence and effectiveness are clear, many students still feel the "three strikes" policy itself far less so. Says Kinsella of the strike policy, "It has just sort of been a scare tactic. I've only heard of a couple of frats actually getting strikes."
Agrees Black, "At first I was worried about how the strikes were going to be given out. I didn't understand the whole practice, and I didn't know what infractions they'd be given for. But I've had no problems."
Of the three "strikes" given this year, all were given for noise violations. While an alcohol violation is often inherently involved in such incidents, according to Susan Boswell, dean of student life, the University typically deals with each incident as a whole, giving one "strike" for as many infractions are present at the time.
Separate incidents, regardless of whether they are for noise or alcohol violations, do add up. If they occur within one year of each other, further disciplinary steps are taken -- typically with probation for the second, and suspension or further action for the third incident or "strike."
In many ways, it appears that Bennett's presence has often prevented the administration from having to invoke the policy. According to Sheppard, when complaints are called in, the school sends campus security or Bennett to investigate, rather than automatically giving a "strike." Sheppard said, "We've had many more complaints than we've had warnings or probations."
"I think the school is very fair about giving out strikes," said Kinsella, "because there were a couple of times when we did have complaints, but [Bennett] helped us and it never got to the point where it was out of hand."
While she does recommend that students talk to the dean themselves and is occasionally called in to serve as a witness, Bennett does not play a role in the judiciary aspect of the policy.
Turning credits the fraternities themselves for the improvement as well, noting that "the fraternities inherently have the infrastructure that's willing to work to make sure parties are disturbance-free. They've gotten a lot better."
Bennett agreed, "Since the beginning of the year our community complaints are down tremendously and that is one hundred percent accredited to the way the students decided to behave out there."
And while she does feel that there has been an improvement, Bennett notes, "The noise is still out there." Her primary contribution, she feels, has been decreasing the visibility of the parties by, for example, having students keep alcohol and cups inside at all times, as opposed to on the properties of neighbors.
"We've got to keep working on it," concludes Bennett. "It's something you can never stop worrying about because when you do people get lax and it starts up again. We're going down the right path."
