Michael Flusche has never seen the hoards of students this big before.

‘It’s every Thursday, Friday, Saturday night,’ he said. ‘It’s long and disruptive.’

Flusche, 69, has lived in his house on the 700 block of Lancaster Avenue since 1976. The East neighborhood has traditionally been a place for both students and permanent residents, he said. But this fall, he said the late night college party traffic has been ‘unabating.’

‘In all the years that we’ve been here, this is the absolute worse,’ said Flusche, who lives in the house with his wife.

Party traffic off campus has spiked, as reported by East neighborhood residents and Syracuse University officials. The new greek life policy that restricts guest lists and drinking at fraternity house parties, an increase in the freshman class size and warm fall weather have all been cited as reasons for the busy weekends.

In his 25 years with the Department of Public Safety, Capt. John Sardino said this year has had an abnormal amount of students wandering in search of off-campus parties. 

‘I don’t see that there are more parties,’ Sardino said. ‘I see that there are more people looking for parties.’ 

Syracuse police have seen an increase of more than 50 percent in area college students and high school kids being ticketed for open container violations, noise violations and nuisance parties, Sardino said. But DPS has not made more arrests than usual, he said, because the Syracuse Police Department has jurisdiction in the off-campus neighborhoods.

There are currently no plans to increase the number of DPS patrols in the East neighborhood, but officers have started to spend more time during their shifts in the area to create a presence, he said. There is currently Neighborhood Safety Patrol, which includes an SPD unit and DPS unit, as well as DPS Orange Watch, which has five officer units in the off-campus area. 

‘Sometimes I think students think we’re out there to break up the parties, but we’re there to make sure they’re safe and get home alright,’ he said.

It is a concern that students may be hosting large open parties for strangers, Sardino said.

‘Knowing everyone in your house is the safest way to have a party,’ he said.

The start of the semester and a new class of students are bringing the crowds out, said SPD Sgt. Gary Bulinski. He said he expects to see the activity decrease as the semester goes on.

SU’s Office of Off-Campus and Commuter Services has received complaints about parties, which is partly because of the neighborhood’s growing reputation as a place to party, said Darya Rotblat, the office’s director. 

There are at least 7,000 SU students living off campus, and approximately 3,000 are in the East neighborhood, Rotblat said. But not all complaints should be aimed at SU.

‘They’re not all SU students,’ she said. ‘The East neighborhood is known as the place to find parties, and it’s becoming more and more known for that.’

Open container, sound reproduction and underage drinking violations were evenly split off campus between the SU and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students and the Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College students, said DPS Chief Tony Callisto in an article published in The Daily Orange on Oct. 5. 

Streets in the East neighborhood typically have at least one permanent resident, and some are split between students and locals, Rotblat said. Rotblat tells students it’s important for them to introduce themselves to their neighbors and set guidelines for late nights and parties, she said.

‘Not everyone who lives near you is a student or a student who is up at those hours,’ she said.

Brian Williamson, an undeclared sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he typically goes off campus for parties on the weekend. Williamson, who is not in greek life, used to go to fraternity parties his freshman year, but hasn’t as much since the rules were changed, he said. 

Greek rules enacted this semester cap the number of guests at greek parties to 150, including chapter members, and require guests to wear wristbands identifying if they are over or under 21. And while these rules have not been strictly enforced, they have deterred some partygoers.  

When Williamson doesn’t have a party to go to, he said he and his friends will walk around, ask others where to go or see where other groups are going. He said he did not think the groups are bothering residents.

‘I see most of the people on Euclid, and that’s where there’s student housing,’ Williamson said.

Parties are part of the East neighborhood, and residents should be prepared for that, said Teddy Pace, an undecided sophomore in the School of Information Studies and friend of Williamson. 

‘If they are going to live somewhere that’s so close to campus, they should take that into consideration,’ Pace said.

But Flusche remembers a time when he could get out of bed if neighbors were making too much noise on the weekends and ask them to quiet down. This is not so anymore.

‘You know going to bed that night you’ll be woken up one, two, three times before 4 (a.m.),’ he said.

Flusche said there were two types of party noises — those that come from porches or yards where people are gathering and playing music and those from people wandering in search of a party. Wandering groups might have 10 to 40 people, and there is shouting and screaming, he said.

Flusche said neighbors have complained about yard signs missing and students urinating on property. His next door neighbors have two young children and are frequently woken up in the middle of the night. One of their Halloween decorations was stolen last weekend.

Flusche is familiar with the changes happening at SU that might account for the increase, such as changing greek policies and the large freshman class, he said. He said he thinks those roaming the neighborhood are mostly freshmen and sophomores who cannot go to bars and do not have university-sponsored activities to go to.

But until the weather turns, Flusche said he would be expecting more of the same.

‘If the weather is half decent,’ he said, ‘the students are going to be out in incredible numbers.’

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on October 12, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride