Editorial: Good neighbor wanted

Published on April 18, 2008

As of last week, the Massachusetts State Police began patrolling in Amherst and Hadley on Friday and Saturday nights to help combat the problems posed by college-age revelers: drinking, drug use, fighting and general rowdiness.

The barracks in Northampton will also be sending over a special squad called CAT, or a Community Action Team. This particular squad should be up for the challenge, having helped Springfield with gang interdiction and Holyoke with the drug trade there.

The good news of the presence of the state police is twofold: It sends a strong message to the students, who need regular reminders that out-of-control behavior isn't acceptable. It also gives Amherst police a needed manpower boost during a busy period without costing extra for the town of Amherst.

The not-so-good news is that their presence is needed in the first place. While Amherst's colleges, particularly the University of Massachusetts, have made strides to curb student drinking, obviously more needs to be done if three local departments - Amherst, UMass and Hadley - are too taxed to handle out-of-control behavior on their own.

This past weekend, for instance, Amherst police responded to some 237 calls, most of which were related to college student parties and raucous behavior. An officer was injured by a hurled bottle; one man was kicked in the head repeatedly; it ended with a total of 17 arrests.

In recent years, the university has made efforts to educate students about the dangers of excessive consumption of alcohol. In addition to banning binge drinking parties, it has put rules in place to discourage drinking. They include limiting dorm room parties to 10 people if alcohol is present, and prohibiting paraphernalia commonly used in binge drinking.

Some of the measures may be helping. In December, the UMass Campus and Community Coalition to Reduce High-Risk Drinking reported a 25 percent decrease in instances of students downing at least four or five alcoholic drinks three times or more over the course of two weeks. Campus officials are attributing this decline in heavy drinking to the work of the coalition and its multifaceted alcohol awareness campaign, which was launched in 2006.

Also, all incoming freshmen are required to take a 75-minute online course that shows how their drinking habits stack up against their peers - and where they can go for help. In addition all students found in violation of the UMass liquor code must attend BASICS, Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students.

Further, UMass has intensified its relationship with Amherst and Hadley police departments in an effort to address off-campus rowdy student behavior, and the Campus and Community Coalition is pushing both towns to introduce a bylaw that would discourage and penalize "party houses."

Like other universities, though, UMass could be doing more. To gain any ground on this problem, it's imperative that UMass and its counterparts follow through with tough enforcement of policies that prevent and punish those students who make community life near the campuses unbearable. The university not only has a responsibility to the students who have made UMass their temporary home. It also has an obligation to be a good neighbor.