Duke University administrators and Durham City Council members met Tuesday to discuss recent concerns raised by residents of the Trinity Heights neighborhood.
Durham Mayor Bill Bell requested a meeting with President Richard Brodhead in a March 25 letter to discuss the continued complaints of homeowners regarding the behavior of students in the off-East Campus neighborhood. Phail Wynn, vice president for Durham and regional affairs, and Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, were also in attendance, along with City Manager Tom Bonfield and City Council members Howard Clement and Eugene Brown.
"There is a shared responsibility on the part of both Duke and the city to deal with this issue," Bell told The Chronicle. "We're going to work together and take care of that."
In his letter, Bell wrote that parties held by fraternities in Trinity Heights homes continued to prompt resident complaints about littering and noise violations. Duke administrators, students and city officials held a series of meetings through the Fall semester to address residents' concerns, but Bell said he felt there is still work to be done.
"Even though fruitful discussions and recommendations resulted from these recent meetings, many question whether Duke Administration staff will take serious and decisive action to invoke more severe penalties on the students causing these problems," Bell wrote.
Brodhead responded to Bell in a letter Tuesday outlining the measures the school has already taken to alleviate the problem, citing efforts to educate students living off campus and the implementation of regular patrols by the Duke University Police Department and the Durham Police Department as examples.
He added that before Duke's investment and engagement efforts in the Trinity Heights community in the 1990s, the neighborhood was "a dangerous and crime-ridden zone."
"This initiative spurred further development and renovation, significantly raised property values and substantially transformed Trinity Heights into a stable and safe neighborhood," Brodhead wrote.
He added in his letter that DUPD will begin increased patrols in the neighborhood this week, continuing throughout the school year, as was decided at the most recent meeting between Wynn and the Trinity Heights Neighborhood Association.
"Duke takes these concerns seriously and is working with students, the neighborhood leaders and the city to address them," Schoenfeld wrote in an e-mail to The Chronicle. "The Duke-Durham relationship is important to both sides, and we look forward to continuing the progress that has already been made."
Sophomore Andrew Brown, Duke Student Government's vice president for Durham and regional affairs, disagreed with Bell's assessment of Duke's disciplinary policy. He noted that students who are found to be in violation of any law while living off campus are subject to punishment twice-once by local law enforcement officials and again by the Undergraduate Judicial Board.
"I don't think that criticism is valid," Brown said. "I think that the City Council is overstepping their bounds and creating a problem when there's not one."
Both Andrew Brown and Brodhead also said landlords who violate housing codes by allowing too many students to live in rental homes should bear some blame for the off-campus disturbances.
Duke administrators and city officials present at Tuesday's meeting said they agreed the situation in Trinity Heights has improved. Some residents, however, said the progress has been limited.
"I would say that on Clarendon Street, the situation has improved because of the close communication we have had with the University administration," said Christine Westfall, a member of the Trinity Heights Action Committee, which initiated discussions on the issue. "In the neighborhood as a whole, it has not improved."
Westfall said she would welcome more responsible students to the neighborhood. She said she feels that the University does not provide appropriate spaces for fraternity parties, thereby bringing them off-campus.
"When a fraternity is located next door and across the street from you, and they have frequent parties, it's like living next to a bar," she said. "No one would find it acceptable for a bar to locate in a residential neighborhood."
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