It’s been about 4 weeks since the start of NC State’s Fall 2008 Semester. The residential communities near and around campus can always tell a difference when school is in session. And there are both good and bad things that come with that. Shortly after the semester started, WRAL posted the following article: Universities try to control students off campus (which the original URL came back with a page not found error), so I found the AP article on Yahoo!
“People who choose to live on the beautiful tree-lined streets surrounding the nation’s institutions of higher learning often get a more vibrant experience than they expected — loud parties, rundown student boarding houses and trash generated by weekend melees.
A growing number of universities are starting to take a more proactive approach to monitoring off-campus behavior and neighbors say the efforts are working.”
The article went on to describe how different universities across the United States try to monitor and discipline students who live off campus. Through the Lineberry Alliance mailings list, readers were assured NC State Administration read the article and took notes.
My thoughts? I think all underclassmen living off campus should be required to complete an online course about living off campus. The course would be developed by NC State, in partnership with the City of Raleigh to ensure key elements of the City Code, rental rights & responsibilities, landlord responsibilities, City services (RPD, trash, recycling, water, CAT/bus), nuisance violations (tall grass, litter, etc.), noise/party violations, PROP, who to call, Citizen Advisory Councils, and other things that first time student renters/owners need to be familiar with. Maybe the course should be free to the public (but still required for students) because I’ve seen plenty of home owners who can’t get it right either.
This solution is a partnership that could really improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods around the university by requiring students living off campus to be knowledgeable on what being a good neighbor is all about. NC State is an expert in creating learning material and distributing it. The City of Raleigh has all the material needed for the course. I’d bet. most, if not all of the material is on their website. But a student isn’t going to go find that material and read it on their own — they’ve got classes to worry about. Can we bring NC State and the City of Raleigh together for this opportunity? If the university can require incoming freshmen to take this course: Online Alcohol Education Required for Incoming Students — then surely we can find a solution for our neighborhoods.
Our neighborhood has had it’s fair share of damaged signs & mailboxes, trash left over from the weekend, added traffic to our daily commutes, traffic accidents, speeding, parties, and many other inconveniences, perhaps, and most likely, not all student related. (But it’s natural and not too uncommon for people to simply place the student “label” on these activities.) We love our neighborhood. We love being close to campus, close to downtown, close to the things we do. And we should all appreciate the economic impact and other benefits that being close to NC State University provides our area, including jobs, education & extension opportunities, and partnership with corporations, research, and government (i.e. Centennial Campus).
I have the pleasure of having two professors from NC State as my neighbors (one on each side). They are both wonderful neighbors. Many alumni live and work around campus. I also have met a variety students in our neighborhoods — and this helps to keep our neighborhood diverse. But unfortunately for many long-term residents, the students inexperience of living in a residential neighborhood on their own for the first time, leaves us with some challenges.
I agree with you that some of the students have a lot to learn. I think, we should also somehow hold the landlords of some of the rental homes responsible for what their tenants do. In the case of the landlords also being the parent of the offending student, they should be informed too. For the most part the rentees of the homes near me have been responsible and quiet, for which I give the actual homeowners a lot of credit for. They have gone out of their way to find good tenants knowing full well that I will call the police (I have done so in the past) if I think things are getting to loud/abusive or going too far into the night.
I agree about the students sometime causing problems. Our house has two rentals to students across and beside us. We have had no problems other than tall grass, which got corrected by the students.
A course telling them how to deal with trash and unwanted furniture and the like would be great-one thing we have had over the years is issues with the trash, and I call the cops (repeatedly sometimes) when a party gets loud, which almost never happens in the last few years.
[...] The FYP issue turned into conversation about the PROP and student rentals. Previously, suggestions were submitted to NC State. You can read more at this post: How to Solve Off Campus Housing Issues in our Neighborhoods. [...]
[...] said that, “NC State University should provide adequate housing needs for all students and provide neighborhood education for each student living off-campus, many having rental responsibilities for the first time. The Lineberry Alliance seems to be doing [...]