Students Contest Off-Campus Housing Policies

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Author: Martha Carol and Ben Dalgetty

President Jonathon Veitch, along with Dean of Students Barbara Avery and other administrators are attempting to crack down on rowdy off-campus events in the face of mounting complaints and criticisms from neighbors, local law enforcement and the Los Angeles judicial system.

“Neighbors were describing pretty egregious actions,” said Avery. The administration has received reports of littering, public urination, intolerable noise, disrespectful comments to neighbors and underage drinking.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has received similar complaints and has been in dialogue with Occidental’s administration to seek resolutions. The LAPD told administrators that it was the college’s responsibility to maintain a lawful peace within the community. “[The administration] felt that we had to hold students responsible for the actions of students in the community,” Avery said.

The administration created a new party “grid” over the summer and Campus Safety distributed it to student houses. The grid lays out four levels of parties and consequences based on the first, second and third incident report about a house party. “Level 1” is a “small gathering, no underage alcohol use documented [and] excessive noise,” which results in “warning individual host(s) [and] educational sanctions,” on the first report. “Level 4” is a “large gathering, underage alcohol use, excessive noise, excessive littering, crowds in the street, lewd behavior [and] property damage,” which results in “possible suspension for individual hosts or whole house,” followed by a potential $500 fine by the third report.

Additionally, there are conduct hearings required for most of the offenses. As described by Avery, these requlations are just an enforcement of long-standing student conduct policies, but added that the administration should have been more straightforward and honest with students before. “The policy has always been there . . . but we tried for a few years to have conversations with students,” said Dean Avery.

“In years past they’ve let a lot slide,” said ASOC President Andrew DeBlock.Disruptive students and upset neighbors are not new occurrences to Occidental. The same issues of destructive and disrespectful student behavior the administration is trying to combat now have been problems for the school in the past. “We could not let happen what had happened years before,” said Avery.

As to why there is such great tension between the school and its community, Dean Avery pointed to similarly increasing tensions on a national level. She said colleges across the country are experiencing rising complaints and that schools are working primarily to ensure student safety. She added that, at Oxy, “neighbors felt for years they didn’t know who to talk to,” but are now “feeling more empowered.”

Avery highlighted that many Oxy neighbors are faculty and staff, and while they understand the tendencies of college students, they also deserve to be able to live where they want to live without having their nights interrupted or property damaged.Echoing the confusion other students expressed, DeBlock said that while he has seen the grid, he had not heard clear explanations of the terms and consequences it lays out. “Students have no idea what to expect [of the hearings],” he said.

The ASOC Senate, currently working with administrators to improve community relations, was dismayed that students were not part of this policy-making process last summer. Dean Avery said, “A student’s perspective is important for us to hear,” and is open to more student involvement next summer when policies are reviewed.

As part of his effort to give students a stronger voice in off-campus policy, DeBlock held a meeting on Oct. 27 for off-campus residents to create an Off-Campus Students Coalition. The first meeting was focused on setting goals for the organization.

The 80-90 students who attended shared stories of experiences with the new policies and problems with the administration. DeBlock said that students described a “blatant disregard for student rights” at their individual conduct hearings. At the meeting, students also discovered that identical situations resulted in different consequences depending on which administrator was in charge.

DeBlock stressed that while he understood the need to curb disrespectful student conduct, the administration’s current approach was not working due to unfair treatment of students. One of the first goals of the coalition is to get the administration to lay out clear, universal guidelines to ensure fair hearings. Additionally, he hopes to show the community the benefits of having college students as neighbors, encourage responsible student conduct and improve communication between off-campus students and residents in the area.

As envisioned by DeBlock, the off-campus coalition could develop a long-term plan for improving student and community relations, working parallel to the administration’s overtures to the neighborhood and could help students “start lobbying [the administration] for ourselves.” He said that students used to perform more outreach to the community, and starting that again could help the current tense climate. Also, by coordinating which houses are having parties and when, students can be prepared and talk with their neighbors, as well as one another, in order to ease relations and smooth out the process. DeBlock said he hopes to have a proposal for off-campus student conduct to present to a meeting with LAPD and the community on Nov. 17.

The second meeting of the coalition took place on Tuesday, Nov. 3 and focused on taking action to improve the currently strained relationship between students and the community.

Mary Carlton (senior), lives off campus and was unimpressed with the administration’s implementation of the rules. “They decided they need to change the policies, but they didn’t deal with the administrative and structural changes needed,” she said. Carlton explained that her house wasn’t informed of the administration’s intent to pursue conduct hearings for an incident report until two months after it occurred, and still hasn’t heard the results of their hearing.

Avery said that the administration was striving to work with students, not against them, with the new policies. “We’ll never stop students from drinking, we just need students to be more responsible.”

A .pdf of the full party grid is available here.

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