Students far outnumbered local residents at a forum last night in Sophia Gordon designed to mend deteriorating town-gown relations.
Only six residents showed up, and most of the students present were either from Greek houses or the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, the forum's sponsor.
"The common theme was to enhance dialogue among students and community members. There were a lot of students who weren't there that probably needed to be there," junior Senator Emerson Luke said.
The six residents who attended primarily came from the West Somerville Neighborhood Association.
After opening remarks, the neighbors broke up into small discussion groups with students, and while some of their complaints touched on extreme behavior - such as students burning a mattress in the street a few years ago - most returned to noise violations after 11 p.m.
Another common theme was the boundaries between the Tufts campus and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Ed Beuchert, a member of the neighborhood association's board of directors, said that he worries that on-campus crackdowns are pushing parties into his backyard.
"I think there should be more events on campus that serve alcohol," he said.
While some have considered Hotung the solution to this problem, Senior Class Council member Jake Shapiro said that the drink limit diminishes the value of the caf?© as a social outlet.
"They make these maximums that push people away," he said.
Beuchert also thinks that students should be more aware of where endpoints of campus are.
As such, he said he would support posting signs around the perimeter of campus reminding students to "please be respectful of the neighbors."
On the student side, senior Senator Deborah Block suggested the creation of an awareness campaign with something along the lines of a "Don't Drink and Scream" theme.
Luke and Beuchert were both supportive of the idea.
Another suggestion, offered by junior Senator Matt Shapanka, talked about creating an off-campus culture and mentioned starting an orientation program for students living off-campus for the first time.
He said he hopes to eventually turn that idea into a functioning Senate project.
The discussion also turned to police enforcement. Tufts University Police Department Sergeant Christopher McGee, for example, talked about how police respond to noise complaints.
He said that officers are instructed to approach slowly, "listening for a lot of noise [or] listening for beer bottles crashing," and decide if the complaint is legitimate.
A police report will be generated whether or not a noise violation is confirmed, and if it is confirmed, student ID numbers may be taken and sent to Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter.
He said that the most complaints tend to come in the first six or seven weeks of the fall semester.
Yesterday's meeting came on the heels of Sunday's Community Day, which also gave students the opportunity to interact with neighbors and try to build connections.
While both events promoted dialogue, the town hall meeting was more cathartic for neighbors, many of whom related specific stories to express their mounting frustration.
Emma Stellman, who lives adjacent to the entrance to Davis Square, said that on Tuesday she found a group of intoxicated girls making noise on her front lawn.
"I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old, and that's a common event. It made me really upset," she aid.
"I know it wasn't any of you in this room," she said to a few laughs.
She said that after she yelled at the students, they showed signs of embarrassment.
Other themes, such as landlords and the newly enforced BYOB policy at Greek houses, also came to the fore.
With regard to landlords, junior and Sigma Phi Epsilon Vice President Jesse Smith said that it's difficult to satisfy both students who often pay high rental prices to landlords and neighbors who have called the area home for longer than four years.
This is especially true when the students living in each off-campus house change every year.
And while some neighbors were complaining about trash, junior and Sigma Phi Epsilon President Per Sandell suggested that the BYOB policy may exacerbate the problem, because students will be walking around with beer cans and bottles more often.
Yesterday's event was organized by Luke and junior Senator Jen Bailey. The two had originally planned to host a community barbecue, but "in light of recent complaints, [we felt] it was more fitting to have a community relations forum," Luke said.
Sponsors and neighbors hope that efforts to mend town-gown relations will not end with the forum.
Luke said he hopes to follow up by working with the Inter-Greek Council and members of the administration who deal with off-campus housing to try to find solutions.
The West Somerville Neighborhood Association will also continue its work. Its members have been distributing pamphlets containing their contact information to students over the past year and a half, and Beuchert encourages all students to get to know their neighbors.
And he said that yesterday's event was a step in the right direction.
"I'm encouraged by the way the student Senate is pursuing this course of action," he said.
But despite the proposed efforts to reach out to the student body, he still expressed reservation.
"I think in some ways we're talking to a different audience than the kind that are causing the problems," he said.
