Posted: 05/03/06

The "hot corner" sizzles on warm weather weekends
The corner of the 300s draws big crowds and concerns for Residence Life and Security

Kelly Joan Murphy | staff editor
kmurphy2@smcvt.edu

“College…no parents!”

A student shouts from the corner of the St. Michael's College 300s townhouses commonly referred to as the “hot corner,” where a large crowd is a common sight on warm weekend nights. For many students, it is an ideal social setting, having all of their classmates partying in the same place. But for Residence Life and Security, it can often mean trouble.

The crowd builds

The first and last six to eight weeks of school bring the largest crowds of partygoers according to the discussion with Security at the Open Forum that took place on April 12. Will Ulwick graduated St. Michael's in 2002 and is one of the eight security officers at St. Michael's.

“For us, it's usually the first few weeks at the begining of the year and the last few weeks at the end of the year that are the worst for us,” Ulwick says. “At the end of the year everyone has all that cabin fever pent up and is ready to let loose when it gets nice out.”

It is when students let loose that trouble often occurs, Ulwick says.

“Our main concern is students' safety and security, our job isn’t to ruin the fun," Ulwick says. "We just want students to have fun and be safe while doing it.”

When confronted with a large crowd a layer effect takes place says Director of Safety and Security Pete Soons.

“First, the Residence Life staff will go through a crowd and try and break it up; if that doesn’t work security will then go through,” Soons says. “If necessary we will call the police.”

This year there have been issues with lack of respect says Ulwick.

“Sometimes there aren’t any problems when we break up a crowd,” Ulwick says. “More often than not this year there have been problems.”

Crowd control

Problems with crowds include open containers, fireworks, destruction of property, disorderly conduct and fights, among others, Ulwick says. Safety and Security Officer Mike Mannings has dealt first hand with lack of respect with students. While on bike patrol one night, he was hit with a bottle of beer in the back.

“It’s not necessarily the size of the crowd, it’s the activity that takes place inside the crowd,” Mannings says who has worked here since 2001.

“When I started working here more people were apt to do what they were instructed to do. Now we have more resistance, we tell people to move and they move five feet,” he says.

According to both Ulwick and Mannings, over the past few months there have been more fighting in the crowd, but neither is sure why.

“When I went here, we had 400 plus crowds and greater respect. In my four years going to school here, I never saw police on campus to break up a party,” Ulwick says. “If people were asked to leave, they would leave.”

Townhouse resident senior Brian Callahan lives in the heart of the “hot corner” in 319.

“I like living there. There is a whole lot of action outside my place on the weekends so I don’t have to go anywhere,” Callahan says.

Like many townhouse residents, Callahan says he sees a lot of unwanted guests.

“I don’t mind having my friends over or my roommates' friends but normally my friends and I don’t know half the people that randomly come into our house” he says.

Senior Ryan Woods is one of the Apartment Community Advisors (ACA) in the 300s.

“The area we live in is our community; we don’t want people to disrespect it,” he says.

Woods says he has dealt with many things while on duty.

“It’s tough being an ACA because on one hand it’s all your friends and classmates and on the other hand you’re responsible for their safety.” Woods says he sees the lack of respect coming mainly from the underclassmen.

“Many don’t know who lives there or understand these are students homes,” Woods says.

When on duty, Woods says he will try and break up the crowd first. A radio separates him from the other students but Woods says it’s mainly the juniors and seniors that know who the ACAs are.

“We go through the crowd a couple times and try and get people to leave. We are advocates, not disciplinarians but if students don’t listen we have to call security,” Woods says.

Callahan says he has only had to deal with security twice this year. “Security is doing a good job,” Callahan says. "We haven’t had many problems.”

First-year Amalia Zychowicz says she occasionally goes to the 300s.

“I usually go with some friends, it’s nice because you see a lot of people,” she says. “I think security does a good job, normally when they come people clear out.”

Bad boys bad boys, what you gonna do?

At the Open Forum, many ideas and suggestions were brought up to security about crowd control.

Mannings says, “we are always open to new strategies or new techniques.” This year, security has hosted an Open Forum and has experimented with using a video camera.

“Ideally students would cooperate, if that were to happen there wouldn’t be a problem,” Soons says. “I think we need to explore some different strategies and see how it goes.”

Every crowd is different, says Ulwick.

“There is no set way to deal with a crowd; you need to analyze the situation and then work your way through.”

At the end of the year Residence Life and Safety and Security get together and evaluate the year.

“Given the Open Forum and things we’ve dealt with this year, I think we are going to try and push for some things some more,” Ulwick says.

One of those things is having more security and student interaction he says. “Sitting down and letting students know who we are.”

During the Open Forum, multiple members of security noted the importance of students safety to them.

“We aren’t out to ruin a good time,” Mannings says. “We just want to make sure everybody is safe.”