Students fear possible eviction

Assistant News Editor

Published: Thursday, September 10, 2009

Updated: Sunday, September 13, 2009 14:09

Milan Stanic

Members of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity feel attacked by the "Animal House" ordinance.

Off-campus students already fear possible eviction from their homes after multiple quality-of-life violation tickets were issued by the South Orange Police in the first week of the fall semester.

Due to frequent disruptive conduct and many complaints in residential neighborhoods, the South Orange Board of Trustees adopted an ordinance commonly known as the “Animal House” law on July 27 that imposes sanctions on landlords who do not evict tenants repeatedly violating quality-of-life-laws.

The ordinance stipulates landlords who fail to evict tenants convicted of more than one violation per year face a minimum fine of $500 or possible revocation of rental license.

Violations of quality-of-life laws fall under conviction for disorderly, indecent, tumultuous or riotous conduct, including simple assault, assault, terroristic threats, harassment, urinating or defecating in public, lewdness, criminal mischief and crimes against property or excessive noise.

Off-campus students are angry about the ordinance because they feel it specifically targets college students when it states that the cause for the ruling is “due to the presence of numerous university students in the community, a condition present in relatively few communities.”

Senior Mike Dinneny, who rents a house on Seton Place with five of his brothers from Pi Kappa Phi, said he fears his possible eviction because his house received a noise violation at 9 p.m. on the first weekend of the fall semester after his neighbors called the police.

“As a student that has lived off-campus within a South Orange community for three years, it is a disgrace to watch a blatant act of discrimination occur,” he said.

Dinneny and his roommates have already found a new house to move into if they are evicted from their home.

Robyn Brody-Kaplan lives on Seton Place as well with her partner and three children under 6 years old. She said the excessive noise problem on her block has grown worse within the past two years when her neighbors began waking her children up between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.

"When we hear noise and we hear parties, we just call the cops because it’s a residential neighborhood and they’re waking up our children,” Brody-Kaplan said. “Literally last night our little girl woke up at 12:30 a.m. or quarter to 1 and she’s like, ‘Mommy, I can’t sleep, there are people outside talking.’”

According to senior Steve White, who also rents a house on Seton Place, the time of day is not always an issue when receiving a sound violation.

White said he had about 15 friends over the first weekend of fall semester when a police officer showed up at his door around 7 p.m. and with no explanation gave him a noise violation due to a complaining neighbor.

“It’s not even a party situation, we’re not even nervous for that,” White said. “We’re just nervous on a day-to-day basis on everything because we can’t even listen to music in the house too loud (or) watch TV too loud.”

Senior Andy Spentzos lives on Grove Street with his brothers from Phi Kappa Sigma. The students received a noise violation in their rented house around 10:30 p.m. on the first weekend of the fall semester.

“Although we do live in a big house and we do have a lot of people around, we keep the noise under control after having that first scare,” Spentzos said.

“It’s not like I’m defecating on people’s lawns or doing all these weird trashy things… we’re just enjoying ourselves as college students… having a few drinks …hanging with a few friends and there are time where things get out of control and too loud, but that’s the place of living by a University.”

Village President Douglas Newman said that the ordinance was not made to attack college students specifically.

“When doing a local law, you have to have a statement of findings as to why you’re even going down the path of doing something,” Newman said. “It’s important because you have to establish what bothered even pursuing an ordinance in the first place if you don’t have a reason that’s different from perhaps a different town.”

Newman said the difference in South Orange is that it is home to a university, which makes it unique.

However, because the ordinance penalizes college students, many of those who live in off-campus housing are beginning to wonder what Seton Hall’s role in the matter is.

Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Services Laura Wankel said she would be “hard pressed” to think that there wasn’t a relationship between Seton Hall students and the ordinance.

However she said she thinks “it’s unfortunate that there’s a perception that the University has done nothing because in fact… for many years now (the University) has been very involved with managing off-campus behavior of students and that to me is a critical component that seems to be lost in much of the media coverage.”

Wankel said the University receives police reports on a daily basis of any arrests or interventions that involve a Seton Hall student. In 2007, 102 reports were received from the South Orange Police Departments and in 2008 only 68 reports were received.

“If you look at the math of it all it would seem that maybe 1,000 to 1,200 students live off campus,” Wankel said. She said it’s important to compare the number of violations to the number of off-campus residents.

One frustration Wankel said she has with the ordinance is the “Animal House” stereotype. “(The Ordinance) has painted an appearance of the Seton Hall student that is truly the exception rather than the typical,” she said.

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An actual adult

Sun Sep 13 2009 07:01

"Instead of taking care of all of the off-campus properties they own, as well as the campus itself, Seton Hall should let everything deteriorate so that it looks like the Beifus lot and other similar properties in town" sure reads like a suggestion of shirking responsibility.

BTW - Anyone - regardless of age - who violates the noise ordinance should be dealt with in a consistent manner. But ask yourself this: is someone who is not a student and has to be at work at 8am really going to have a loud party until 3am? Students seem to believe that off-campus is some La-La land where they can live outside the shadow of university oversight with zero consequence. Life just does not exist like that.

Your name

Sun Sep 13 2009 00:09

Student 2 - I think Nicole and others like her would be signing a much different tune if students decided to patronize businesses outside of South Orange. I think I saw that suggested somewhere else in this thread.

The university and the village need to work together. It can't just be one sided. As many can see by the posts here, there are more than a few village residents who need to realize that SHU has been in South Orange longer than they have been alive and will continue to be there long after they are worm food.

South Orange also needs to look at other major college towns and see what they do to thrive because right not South Orange is hardly a college town (a town with a college is more like it) and it is hardly thriving.

Will's kid

Sat Sep 12 2009 23:55

Maybe if South Orange was more student friendly and had places in town for them to congregate and hang out they would be less inclined to have house parties. Because South Orange seems to hate the idea that a major university resides within it's borders they also seem to avoid having businesses in town that would attract the students.

Maybe instead of another nail salon the Village could try and attract some college friendly business to occupy the growing number of empty storefronts that now occupy South Orange Avenue.

Will's Kid

Sat Sep 12 2009 23:49

AAA - I NEVER said the university should shirk it's responsibility. However, you have to realize that students are for the most part legal adults. What do you suggest happen to the 18-23 year old population in town that causes trouble but aren't SHU students? You can't play by two set of rules.

Also, in my original post I was responding to Nicole's disrespectful post.

Student2

Sat Sep 12 2009 18:21

As a student who has both resided in the town of south orange and on campus at Seton Hall, it seems to be a two way street in which no one knows how handle the situation. Where many people have stated that Seton Hall has no affect on the town, I would like to see how businesses like Eden Gourmet, the Village Diner, Cryans, and Gaslight would flourish without the students. Where were the SOPD when a house on Grove was robbed? The police did not do anything about the situation or follow up because the house was full of students. Or when a Seton Hall student was recently mugged? The polices response to the mugged student was to ask him if he had been drinking and which party he had just left...is that how a police officer should respond to a crime? No! Where were the SOPD when the hit and run occurred last year leaving a student's father dead? Oh yes, they stopped pursing the man once he entered the town of South Orange allowing for him to speed down South Orange Ave and kill a man. What about at 3am when a police cruiser was spotted flying over 60mph down South Orange Ave? Where was his speeding ticket? Or what about when the cops were called on a house when only 5 people were present, all of whom lived in the house? Why are neighbors calling the police when a little group of 21+ students are sitting around the television watching a football game, legally drinking a beer? Maybe if the SOPD were not so concerned with college students being college students, the town would flourish even more so and crime would be down. While I understand that sometimes people do act irresponsibly, it is a SMALL minority of students, if students at all. I have seen, plenty of times, adults who are not students at SHU at all causing trouble if not more then the actual students who attend the university. This "animal house" ordinance is discriminatory in itself. I ask people who responded to this post, like Nicole, to ask yourself what would happen to your precious town if Seton Hall was not to exist. You would be Valisburg, or Downtown Newark. The students offer their community service to the town, working down at the library reading to YOUR children, painting YOUR art buildings, cleaning up YOUR parks...if you want to clean them yourselves, go for it! But DO NOT say we do nothing for your town. As one has pointed out already, that once you have the police called on your home, you are then discriminated against for the rest of the year. Why are these police offers staking out students homes instead of stopping the muggings, robberies, and hit and runs?! Maybe this new ordinance is just a means to an end, but it is in NO WAY the correct way for the town to handle the situation. There are plenty of students who respectfully live among the residents of this town, and I hope that everyone can work together to come to a better conclusion then to simply evict students mid-year affecting their schoolwork and grades.

SHU Resident

Sat Sep 12 2009 17:30

I live off campus, about a block away from campus. My house recieved a noise violation within the first week of classes - and it wasn't even a party situation. We had about 10 people over, then random students started showing up at the door. We told them there wasn't a party, so they just stayed in front of the house on their phones looking for something to do and somewhere to go.

My neighbor didn't know what was going on, so he called the police. 5 minutes later, the SOPD was on my doorstep issuing me and my roommates a noise violation - when there wasn't a peep of noise coming out of the house.

Not only do we have to be afraid of who is coming in our houses for a get-together, but now we have to fear who might hear you are having people over and just show up. This is ridiculous. If we get a noise violation: fine. We'll pay it, or fight it, whatever. But just because a bunch of college students are doing what college students do: living life, doesn't mean that we should be kicked out of our homes.

Most of us that live off campus have nowhere to go. We can't commute. We have jobs in the area while still attending school full time. Instead of kicking us out, the town should maybe look into weeding out a few bad apples that spoil the whole bunch - not flashing sirens whenever someone yells to loud on their own property.

Your name

Sat Sep 12 2009 16:46

It truly is upsetting to hear how some people have been trying to change the direction of this conversation- saying that our school's reputation has gone down tremendously, etc. As a student, it gets me more frustrated/angry that people that live in this town have such negative opinions towards my school. Imagine people were saying that about your alma mater? Maybe we should stick with the idea that the student-community relationship obviously needs some mending. As a current student, I definately agree that South Orange is a great town, it is my 'home' for most of the year. Things need to be looked at in a different light. While SHU students could change, maybe the overall 'negative' attitude towards Seton Hall itself could be changed. Whoever was the 5th year student honestly couldn't have said it all better. I am sure there are plenty of students within the student body that would be willing to help come up with some solutions or at least begin the problem. Instead of the negative attitudes, why don't we work on fixing it.

An actual adult

Sat Sep 12 2009 15:37

I say apples and oranges as you are asking the University to shirk its obligation (not by law but by precedent and promise) to counter South Orange addressing the concerns of its citizens due to a very few numbers of misbehaving students. The only way to address this is for everyone who has skin in the game to work together.

Your name

Sat Sep 12 2009 15:26

I am a Seton Hall student who, over the past 3 years, has been harassed and treated with absolute disrespect by a segment of the SOPD, specifically those individuals tasked with breaking up parties. A trend that hasn't been addressed in this article is the fact that once these officers mark a house as being a "party" house, meaning they have responded to calls there/observed large groups of students frequenting the residence, their patrols conveniently target those houses for the remainder of the year/semester.

A party can be well within a reasonable noise level, however when the police officer who is parked outside "hunting" the party goers has any reason to pounce, they take it (with their now trademark level of combative attitudes). In addition to this, it is virtually guaranteed that these officers tasked with responding to parties will simply enter the home without knocking or announcing their presence. This is something I have seen more than a dozen times.

South Orange is a great town. The South Orange Police Department maintains this and my comments are by no means directed toward the entire department, but this new ordinance gives a great deal of power to police officers who, in my opinion and the opinions of countless other off-campus residence, are in no way shape or form professional enough in their behaviors to warrant such authority over off-campus renters.

Students of Seton Hall, it doesn't do us any good to be tossing around comments about South Orange only being nice because of Seton Hall, the town is full of interesting people who live interesting lives outside of our little school-based community. They take just as much enjoyment from the village and are just as invested in it as us, probably more.

Residents of South Orange, I'm a 5th year senior who has spent many of my weekends partying off-campus, in your town. Something that is imperative for you to understand is that your neighbors who party on weekends are not (for the most part) unreasonable criminals who should be evicted from your town. We have parents and families and we know family life consists of long days and hopefully refreshing nights of sleep, the trouble is when there are no siblings to clean up after or chores we have to do around the house, perspectives change and having fun becomes the priority. What I would ask and suggest is for you to approach your student-neighbors and exchange telephone numbers or even just a friendly conversation. Even a conversation will go a mile in your relations and will keep you fresh in any students mind who is having people over that night.

This can get better or worse but I doubt it can stay the same. Students will begin to be evicted and bad sentiments will breed and grow between students and the town. This will occur unless we treat the "Animal House Ordinance," a law with the power of eviction, as the rock-bottom of village/student relations. If we do this then we are left with the rational choice of figuring something else out, such as the University designating an area of town as "Student-Friendly" or having SHU's security service respond to house-party calls (freeing up SOPD officers to perform actual crime prevention and allowing the students to deal with the University rather than an entrenched and aggressive police force).

I truly hope and believe cooler heads will prevail on this. Its beyond petty and childish of us to believe that both village residents and students can't coexist within the same area. If that were true then I don't see how colleges could exist, due to the fact that there will always be a population within the student body that enjoys partying. The suggestion of a village/student program to address these problems is a great one, however in most University organizations no individual who has been in trouble with the school or town can participate, and I really think you're going to need those guys on this.

Anyway thats my opinion, for those of you heading to happy hour soon-Enjoy....I'll try to keep it down tonight.

Will's Kid

Sat Sep 12 2009 14:05

AAA - How so? Life is a two-way street, except in South Orange.

An actual adult

Sat Sep 12 2009 13:48

WK - Apples and Oranges...

Your name

Sat Sep 12 2009 13:31

Blue diddy, it seems like the police would be better served actually protecting the citizens from violent crimes. Parties are not violent crimes but I guess you pick you battles and they piked their's.

Will's Kid

Sat Sep 12 2009 13:04

Hey Nicole, you might want to really rethink your response there. You sound quite uneducated about what SHU does for the Village of South Orange. Maybe you would wise up if the University and the Seton Hall community did as you say they do.

Maybe SHU should stop paying PILOTS, that would save the university a tremendous amount of money it doesn't have to give the Village that they could instead spend on their students. Even your Village President says that South Orange really isn't in a position to ask SHU for more money.

Maybe SHU students and employees should patronize businesses outside of South Orange. How do you think the local businesses would react if everyone associated with SHU boycotted their businesses and took their shopping dollars to other nearby towns such as Maplewood, Livingston, Millburn or West Orange? I'm sure especially in this economy, the neighboring towns would welcome SHU patrons with open arms. Look at your downtown now, how many more empty storefronts do you really want?

Instead of taking care of all of the off-campus properties they own, as well as the campus itself, Seton Hall should let everything deteriorate so that it looks like the Beifus lot and other similar properties in town. Would you like more public eyesores? SHU takes care of their properties and pays PILOTS but the town gives them problems with variances they need so that they can properly serve their students.

South Orange is not the most welcoming town to begin with, especially to Seton Hall and their students. This ordinance doesn't seem to be a real welcome wagon either. South Orange is always complaining that SHU does nothing for them and whatever they do isn't enough or good enough. But I ask you, just exactly what has South Orange done for Seton Hall?

No, students should not be causing a disturbance in town but when the town is not welcoming and does not show the students any respect whatsoever then exactly what do you think will happen when an ordinance such as this is passed? Maybe the Village needs to work with the university instead of doing everything in their power to work against them. The university can certainly help out as well but it has to be a give and take on both sides. It can't be the usual SHU giving and South Orange taking.

Both sides need to understand that one person's disturbance is another person's pleasure. Loud music at 3 in the morning is not the pleasure of mom and dad with young kids just as screaming preschoolers at 8 in the morning are not the delight of a young college student who just pulled an all-nighter for exams.

Maybe there should be a boycott of South Orange, then, maybe, just maybe, South Orange would realize just how much Seton Hall does for the community, how important they are to the success of the Village and treat them a heck of a lot better than they do now and be a lot more welcoming. Think about it Nicole, is this what you really want?

Your name

Sat Sep 12 2009 12:50

Cyborg, you are pathetic wishing something like that on ANYONE! Seton Hall students have been mugging victims all to often on the streets of South Orange.

Your name

Sat Sep 12 2009 11:32

This is extremely disappointing to read all of these negative comments. I am a proud student of Seton Hall, and I am happy to call South Orange my home for "2, 15-week semesters" a year. SHU students are very accomplished- South Orange, you should see where our graduates get jobs and our students get internships. And yes, we are in college, and students that live off-campus are going to have parties. I agree that they need to be more respectful during late hours of night. But please do not accuse Seton Hall of going downhill and having a bad reputation. Seton Hall is a Big East school; we compete with Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, Louisville, and more. It's hurtful to hear these insults toward the school than to hear that the students off-campus act like children. Have some respect for the established University in your town!

Blue Diddy

Sat Sep 12 2009 07:55

I was a Police officer in South Orange for 20 years many on a midnight shift and I can tell you that the students went from being a mild nuisance to a full blown problem. Students believe that all the Police have to do is harass the students at night. Well I can tell you first hand THE LAST THING the Police want is to be BOTHERED with them. We have REAL crime in South Orange,very real and dangerous crime that could be and should be dealt with but can not because of some stupid underage drinking party. Want to know why someone stole or broke into your car last night?why was a store broken into? chances are because the Cop working your area was with the other Cops in town breaking up a party or bar fight. Where is that ambulance you need on a Thursday night? taking it's 6th drunk kid on campus to the hospital.....Seton Hall should be charged $1000 dollars a student and faculty public safety fee for the amount of time emergency services has to spend on campus. Any student who says that the Police just bum-rush them out of the blue is full of it. The Police had no choice when they respond to just issue a summons and break up the partys now because when they used to come up and tell them to "go inside and turn the music off it got them nowhere. Students should think how they would feel if their family member lived in an apartment and had this garbage going on above,below and on each side of them. South Orange has a GREAT Police department with vary fair men and women,want proof? Go east 4 blocks where the trees stop.

Gardner

Sat Sep 12 2009 03:04

As a 33 year resident of South Orange who grew up a few steps outside campus, I have seen firsthand how Seton Hall, the University & it's student body has evolved over the years. Whether the University & it's student body wants too admit it or not, South Orange is not & never has been a college town. Back in the 80's a few years prior to the mens basketball program becomming a force to be reconned with nationally, the University had an oppertunity to open it's self up to the residents of South Orange, insted a six foot tall fence was errected arround the perimitter shutting out the residents of South Orange.
To the person who claims that Seton Hall pays the town a million dollars a year, I would like to know where you get your information, & I would love to see some documented proof of this transaction. I and many fellow residents have asked the appropriate authorities at Village Hall if Seton Hall makes any such payment and each time have been informed that SHU does not pay the town anything.
Too those Seton Hall students who choose to reside in town off campus all I can say is you must respect your surroundings. Agree with it or not South Orange has ordinances in place to deal with behavior that is deemed inappropriate. We all know they exsist, and we know that the Police Department, and code enforcement department have no problem issuing summonses when appropriate. If you want to be treated like adults, you must act like adults.