 "Photo: Heidi Greenleaf/The Towerlight")
Towson University is about to get more aggressive with students who act like bad neighbors off campus.
At a meeting with the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations Thursday night, Towson President Robert Caret said the University is preparing to combat "nuisance houses" in residential communities.
The meeting marked Caret's first comments in over a year to the umbrella group that represents many Towson neighborhoods. In the past, the GTCCA has lobbied against plans to build new student housing in downtown Towson. Thursday's meeting was an attempt to clarify the University's goals and desires for campus growth. Don Gerding, a Rodgers Forge Community Association board member, said the University should take responsibility for students who move into residential communities and create disturbances. "I've just changed my position on this, and I'll tell you why," Caret said.
In the past, the University has intervened in incidents involving formal groups that reside off campus representing TU (such as sororities, fraternities and sports groups).
"If there's a group living together, carrying the Towson label, we'll take significant action against them," he said.
Up until now, Towson has resisted calls to punish individual students for off-campus misconduct. But that may be changing. By mid-April, the University plans to draft a policy that would define what qualifies as a nuisance house, according to Deb Moriarty, vice president for student affairs. The policy could go into effect next fall."Whether it's a fraternity, sorority or just a group of students, we're looking at how to label a nuisance house," Caret said.
When 32 students were arrested at a gathering on Lake Avenue last October, the University assigned sanctions against the two Greek groups involved, but didn't punish the individual students.
Towson relies on county police officers and local code enforcement officials to handle off-campus instances of student misbehavior.
"We're not set up to be a police force for the community," Caret said. "The laws are not set up for us to do that."
Moriarty said administrators held a meeting to discuss the nuisance house issue last week. The consequences of being labeled a nuisance house are unclear.
Notifying parents probably isn't in the cards. Moriarty cited federal regulations that prohibit the release of student records to parents without a student's consent.
Gerding would like to see a system put in place to allow the University to manage complaints and locate students by using license plate numbers and student addresses.
"We want to see some tightening up so we don't have to constantly report disturbances," he said. "The students have to realize that when they're in a residential community there are certain regulations that we all have to abide by."
Gerding recognized that only a small number of students create significant problems in neighborhoods around TU.
"Our community's concern is that five percent of all the students who live within our residential communities are the ones who create current and past problems of misconduct in the general community," he said.
Caret agreed that most students fit into the community without any problem.
"As a college town, we've been quite lucky. We don't have people burning down cars and houses," Caret said, referring to past riots at University of Maryland College Park and the resulting system-wide student misconduct policy.
"I've tried to be realistic with the students. I'm not trying to live in a make-believe world, but by the same token, we expect reasonable behavior," he added.
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