College Students Look To Repair Image

In a room with almost 150 University of Mary Washington students, Clyde Mathews, a 76-year-old man who has lived in College Heights for 37 years, provided his perspective on why local residents are complaining more about the behavior of some students.

He told the students last night at a community meeting in Lee Hall that they are at the beginning of their adults lives and he is at the end of his. He's been retired from the federal government for 15 years and he planned to live his best years in College Heights.

He just celebrated his 50th anniversary with his wife, to which students applauded. One of his top goals was to buy a nice house, build equity and pay it off, which he has finally done after 30 years. Students applauded again. 

But when he wakes up in the morning and there are beer bottles or red Solo cups strewn across his yard or he is awakened at night because students are talking loudly outside, it's disturbing to him and he worries it will adversely impact his chief investment: his home. Many city rentals aren't maintained as well as his home, and if the lack of attention to a neighborhood's aesthetics gets worse, property values will decrease. That's Mathews' worst nightmare.

"Everything that my wife and I have have built up equity in is our home," Mathews said. "Someplace along the line I am going to have to go into a retirement building and the only way we are going to be able to afford to get into a retirement building is if we get a good price for our home. So, I want to keep the value of my property up."

The community meeting was put together by UMW's Student Government Association. SGA President Rob Belcourt said students wanted to open a dialogue with the community after numerous newspaper articles, letters to the editor and police logs have put a spotlight on the growing divide between students and local homeowners.

"We are here to have a conversation," Belcourt said. "We are not here to have a confrontation. We are not here to fight each other."

Since the complaints increased, the Fredericksburg Police Department has beefed up patrols around the college, City Police Chief David Nye said one recent party that officers ended had 57 underage drinkers in various states of intoxication.

UMW President Richard Hurley, Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker, Vice President of Student Affairs Douglas Searcy, Police Chief Nye, Police Department Spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe, College Heights Civic Association President Meredith Beckett and Fredericksburg's Senior Planner Eric Nelson were the panel of speakers there to answer students' questions.

Hurley said that the students are valuable to the community and they are appreciated here. But the actions of a few students have led people to paint an inaccurate picture of the student body as a whole.

Rucker asked students to be conscious of their neighbors and respect their property.

"You would not want individuals trashing your neighborhood. If someone decided to take a whiz on your lawn, you would not appreciate that," he said. "We are a part of a community and we must be respectful of one another as citizens of that broader community."

The meeting was peaceful, and at times awkward, for some of the panel members who are not used to getting questioned by students.

For example, one female student told the police chief that while she was either walking home or out in her front yard, officers would stop her and question her about where she was going, how old she is or where she was coming from. The student said the interaction made her feel uncomfortable and she asked the police chief why this was happening and what she could do about it. Nye said if she isn't doing anything wrong she could tell the officer that she didn't want to talk and continue walking—advice that students quickly dismissed as not practical.

Earlier, another female student asked the police chief what her rights are if she is having a party and the police show up.

"I am coming at it from a different perspective than how a defense attorney would," Nye cautioned. Police have a right to question people and if anyone feels like they have been wronged, there is a complaint process, Nye said. Once someone is arrested, it is public information and Bledsoe adds every arrestee's name, address and charge on the daily police log. She said it's all legal and perfectly acceptable. She cautioned students to be careful because in the age of the Internet, a criminal record in their younger years can come back to haunt them.

Nye also thanked UMW students for their public service and that he remembered seeing many students participate in Special Olympics, all good deeds that get lost when there's friction and controversy.

Another student asked if the university had any plans to purchase additional off-campus housing that does not have Residential Assistants (RAs). Students said RAs are sticklers for rules and it can make the college experience uncomfortable and tense. Searcy said there aren't any plans to purchase or build any additional off-campus student housing. But RAs are chiefly there for student safety. Rucker said the university may have to look into the situation if RAs are getting overzealous about some rules.

Another student asked why homeowners can't ask the students to quiet down instead of calling the police.

"That is normally what we encourage our residents to try to do," Beckett said. "There is a little bit of a fear factor sometimes, especially with our older residents."

Another man who lives in College Heights and has a young daughter said if students want to have a house party, they should let their neighbors know about it beforehand and that could prevent any police visits. Plus, it is courteous.

Beckett said many complaints come from parents of younger children. "Nobody is against the students having parties," she said. "What the issue is, sometimes it gets a little loud, sometimes it gets a little out of control, sometimes it’s the language being used."

Beckett said College Heights residents had a block party and there were fliers that welcomed student neighbors to the event, but she said no students showed up. One female student who resides in College Heights said that she was offended by the fliers because they said "UMW Students Welcome."

"Well, why wouldn't we be welcome?" she said

This kind of back-and-forth interaction happened throughout the night, and it was the first time in years it has happened on this scale. Hurley ended the meeting by asking the students not to litter and to keep their voices down when walking through neighborhoods.

"I hope that we all learned a little bit," he said.

After the meeting, SGA Vice President Monique dela Cruz tweeted, "That was incredible. I was really impressed by the turnout and the dialogue that occurred. It's a start for improving community relations. It doesn't end here."