Recordpub.com - KSU students integrate into neighborhoods Some permanent Kent residents cope with noise

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

The streets surrounding Kent State University are a mix of retirees, families, married couples, singles and student renters.

In 2006, the city of Kent's health department licensed about 350 boarding houses. A large majority of those houses are concentrated on streets near the campus. For students, they can be attractive, affordable alternatives to on-campus living.

Streets with the highest number of licensed rental properties include College Avenue, University Drive and Summit and Lincoln streets. Most fall within Ward 5, which is represented by Councilman Ed Bargerstock.

They are streets he describes as problematic.

"College (Avenue) is notorious," he said. "Lincoln Street is notorious. South Willow (Street) has had its moments."

Of the 22,352 students enrolled at the Kent campus, 16,081 are living off campus this fall. The university does not specifically track where those students live, said Betsy Joseph, the university's director of residence services.

Though it is difficult to measure the direct impact some of those students have as they integrate into Kent neighborhoods, city administrators, including Bargerstock, have taken action recently to strengthen ordinances and keep escalating disorderly actions from disrupting neighborhood quality of life.

Early this year, council approved hiking first-time offense fees for violators of the city's nuisance party and unlawful noise ordinances in an effort to curb the number of violations.

Kent Safety Director William Lillich said it is too early to tell if the changes have had the intended impact. He said past efforts are proving effective because the number of repeat offenses are declining, but the student element of the population continues to create a livelier atmosphere nightly in Kent.

"The surrounding communities are going to sleep around 10 and 11 at night," he said. "Whereas here, things are just warming up."

In the period from the first day of classes to the second week of September Kent police cited 41 people for unlawful noise violations, arrested 52 people for underage drinking and issued no nuisance party citations. Ten KSU students committed crimes this semester serious enough to warrant a recommendation to the university's office of judicial affairs, which could penalize students academically for violating off-campus laws.

One Crain Avenue resident said obnoxious behavior and loud parties have increasingly permeated neighborhoods near campus.

"Sometimes parties start on weekdays at four o'clock and don't end until the cops come," she said. "I don't think they really get that they live in a residential neighborhood. They live next to people who don't take part in that. They're not in a dorm anymore."

She lives in close proximity to University Drive and spoke on condition of anonymity because she regularly calls police on her student neighbors for nuisance violations, and she fears retribution if identified.

"I'll be there long after these students are gone," she said. "I'm only asking students to be good neighbors."

Bargerstock said older residents close to campus recognize new students must learn what is, and what isn't, acceptable in the neighborhoods.

"Anybody that has lived around the campus in the past 40 years has done so purposefully because they like being there," he said. "I'm one of them. The biggest issue people in Ward 5 have are behaviors not allowed on campus, some people think they are permitted off campus."

Bargerstock said residents also recognize it is a small percentage of the students who cause most of the problems.

"If (residents) were upset with KSU students they wouldn't live there," he said.

This story is part three in a four-part series: Impacting Where They Live; KSU students integrate into the city.