With a University-backed promise from the Durham Police Department to crack down on off-campus parties, many students say Duke's neighbors may not have much to complain about over the next few weeks.
Following last weekend's student celebrations, Durham residents living near undergraduates off East Campus complained of excessive noise at night and trash-littered streets in the morning. Durham police responded by issuing a letter to students living off campus, warning them that they risked criminal charges should the offenses be repeated. In turn, the University offered to assist Durham police by assuming some of the costs involved with enforcing a no-tolerance policy in the areas surrounding East Campus.
"As for now, I would say that the 'crack down' is something that will add caution and better control from all the fraternities in regards to off-campus parties," said Joe Kelly, president of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.
For the upcoming weekend, many fraternities have planned section parties on West Campus or will be hosting their parties in local night clubs and bars. Neighbors should not see the types of off-campus parties they found so disturbing last weekend, fraternity members and off-campus students said.
Many added, however, that students will probably head off East Campus again after the initial shock of the DPD warning wears off. "People will have to lay off for a little while and keep things a little more 'under control,'" said Dave Moe, president of Eta Prime--formerly Kappa Sigma fraternity--and an off-campus resident. "But the off-campus parties aren't going to stop altogether. In the long run, I don't think it will really change."
Kelly said the recent admonishments from Durham police have caused Delta Sig, which is on social probation until fall break, to take extra steps to ensure that its off-campus party scene does not rub the wrong way with authorities. He added, however, that the police warning would not prevent the fraternity from hosting its off-campus parties.
Mark Boyd, another member of Eta Prime, noted that even if students do not plan to throw huge bashes in their off-campus homes, there is no way to exercise complete control over what happens on their streets.
"It's a situation where people just start looking for parties. There was nothing going on on West [Campus] at this point, so they were wandering aimlessly around East," Boyd said. He added that he spent hours Saturday night trying to clear his house of freshmen who had appeared, unexpectedly, at his door.
Jett Greenberg, a former member of Phi Psi--one of an increasing number of fraternities to lose University housing over the last few years--said off-campus parties will not die out.
"Duke University has made a concerted and conspicuous effort to remove fraternities that like to have parties away from campus," Greenberg said. "The next logical step is for them to move off campus and continue with their social habits and traditions."
Like Greenberg, many students blamed the University for creating a situation in which off-campus parties are needed to fill the gaps in on-campus entertainment. The parties will not stop, they said, until there is a comparable alternative.
"When I was a freshman, the on-campus scene was really all there was," Moe said. "As far as I know, there aren't very many frats that are allowed to throw parties on campus right now. That's just the way things panned out with Duke."
Boyd told a similar story, saying a freshman told him over the weekend that he had come off campus because he "could have heard a pin drop" on West Campus.
"Obviously the programming the school is providing is not drawing the crowds, because the crowds are just walking from house to house looking for beer," Boyd said. "The root of the problem, which is clear to anyone with half a brain, is that college students should be hanging out on campus on Saturday night, and not in the neighborhoods beyond. But when you create a situation where people can't hang out on campus, you're going to have some trash in the neighbors' yards."
Late Wednesday night, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta sent an e-mail to the undergraduate student body asking it to abide by the new Community Standard by respecting Duke's neighbors, and encouraging students to take advantage of such on-campus events as "21 Night Stand."
Greenberg noted that future off-campus parties will not be as troublesome as the ones of last weekend because they will cater to a different audience. Especially after the freshmen find their own social niches, he said, off-campus parties will be a little more mellow.
"The next two or three weeks are going to be crucial, and for the most part, everyone I've spoken to is going to lay low," he said. "When there are parties in the future, they will probably be smaller, just because it will be more people we know, and not as many freshmen just wandering off campus, going where the crowd goes."
Will Plaxico, a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity living off campus, said people will probably just let neighbors' anger subside before doing anything off campus again. "I wouldn't worry about it too much," he said. "They're just trying to scare us a bit with all the warnings."
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