On Wednesday, Oct. 22 an impromptu meeting was held between a group of Middlebury town residents and the administration after off-campus parties on Weybridge Street over Homecoming Weekend and throughout the semester left many neighbors frustrated.
“We feel a commitment to responding to the concerns of neighbors. We of course want to believe that our students have a genuine respect for what it means to live in a close-knit community in a small town neighborhood. During the first meeting with neighbors (Wednesday, October 22), many of the concerns raised by participants were with respect … people said things such as ‘I just want to have someone look me in the eye’ and ‘I want to know that I’m being seen by my neighbors.’ I think that’s very much a small town expectation. People don’t live anonymously here and I think it’s bewildering to them to think that students don’t want to step into a friendly, neighborhood relationship,” said Dean of Students Katy Smith Abbott.
The meeting involved 17 people, including Associate Dean of Students Doug Adams, Abbott, Special Assistant to the President Dave Donahue, Director of Public Safety Lisa Burchard, Middlebury Chief of Police Tom Haley, and nine local residents — one a landlord and the rest neighbors who were concerned about student off-campus living.
The main concerns brought up by the neighbors were a lack of respect and communication between students living off-campus and town residents. However, concerns about respect went beyond just being disruptive during parties, but also day-to-day interactions from not saying hello to not making eye contact.
Though a very small percentage of College students live off campus, they are widespread enough to have contact with many residents (see graphic for details). The College currently has a lottery system that allows a finite number of students to live off campus each year. The number fluctuates between 90-120 and this year it is the full 120 students. However, off-campus partying is not new, but some neighbors perceive it to be worse in the recent years.
“I can tell you now that we have owned the house on Weybridge Street for around 20 years. It used to be a fairly quiet neighborhood. Our children grew up there since the youngest was in fourth grade,” town resident Stephanie Smith said.
“But in the last four years the problems have gotten increasingly worse. Noise, rude and inconsiderate people, drinking parties lasting all night long — even when police come to help,” she continued.
Another neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told the Campus Voice her experience during Homecoming weekend:
“Thursday we were woken up multiple times throughout the night by people just howling on the streets, slamming closed doors, and just being generally loud and rude so we didn’t get much sleep. So when Friday came and the party was growing more and more out of control, I decided to sleep at my mother in-laws’ house because I had to work in the morning. When I went to leave I couldn’t pull out of my driveway because it was so full of people. I had to inch my car along to get people to move and then what really made me mad was that there was one guy who just kind of turned and saw me and moved just an inch to the left and gave someone the finger across the street. Its just infuriating to have to sleep somewhere else so that I can be well rested for work and then to get this attitude when I’m trying to leave my own driveway and not be able to,” she said.
However, though the meeting called for by town residents and announced by Head of College Communications Bill Burger on a local town forum, The Front Porch Forum, did not include students, many students living off campus have expressed their concern for how the neighbors feel and want to work towards a solution.
“The relationship between students and the town is damaged right now and I think the town’s complaints are legitimate,” said Emily Alper ’15. “As much as they don’t want parties with a hundred students, we don’t want 100 students coming to our house, but because of the school’s short-sighted, tyrannical policies there aren’t on-campus party options. My freshman year, I would have so many different parties away from the town to choose from, and now when I talk to underclassmen, they think off-campus houses are central party space and that has never been the case.”
One major component of this dialogue has been the need for on-campus party spaces, specifically since of the closing of Prescott House and that DKE House was not opened during Homecoming weekend, as it was in past years.
“I understand that our neighbors have the right to go about their days peacefully,” said Nic Strain ’15. “And it is not our intention to disrupt them, but at the same time we are just trying to enjoy our college experience. I don’t think the administration is being transparent enough with the Middlebury community; there is a direct correlation between the actions of the administration [banning tailgates/not opening DKE] and the events that transpired over Homecoming Weekend. We didn’t want to have people over, especially not at that volume, but there was nowhere else for students to go, and that is an issue that is falling on the shoulders of those who live off campus, which needs to be addressed,” he continued.
However, though the meeting did focus on the particularly tense relationship that has transpired between students and neighbors, the exchanges were not all negative. Peter Jette, town resident and landlord to over 20 students expressed his genuine appreciation for college students during an interview with the Campus Voice.
“I have enough experience with the students as tenants to make a judgment and they’ve been terrific. I can count on one hand the number of problems I’ve had. I didn’t even know what that Front Porch Forum was until someone sent me a clip from it so I joined it because it kind of annoyed me that the only comments pertaining to Middlebury off-campus housing were negative,” Jette said.
“I can just tell you that the tenants have been great; they pay rent on time, they take care of places for the most part, and I chat with them when they pay rent because my office is near by and they’re terrific tenants and most of them are terrific people,” he concluded.
These conversations coincide with other conversations that have been happening on Community Council and throughout the College about the implementation of a social honor code that would hold students accountable, with written documentation, for their actions. Although only a discussion as of now, the College is beginning to look at what a social honor code could mean.
“I would like students to hold each other accountable, to be willing to accept responsibility when things go off the rails (and to ask for help when they see this happening). Whether a social honor code (which has been the subject of many conversations in the past several years) is required to make this possible is an open question,” Abbott said.
