Georgetown will be implementing major changes to a university program in an attempt to pacify rowdy off-campus parties and reduce noise complaints lodged against students, student leaders said Thursday.

The Student Neighborhood Assistance Program, which dispatches university employees to problem houses on weekend nights, will be taken over largely by Metropolitan Police Department officers beginning next month, the student officials said.

Area residents can call the SNAP hotline on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to register noise complaints about student parties with the Department of Public Safety. Once officers log the call, they dispatch Student Affairs and Residence Life employees to warn students at the problem house. Every complaint receives a follow-up investigation by university officials and students found to have violated the student code of conduct may receive university sanctions.

GUSA vice president Luis Torres (COL ’05) said that university officials told student leaders in meetings Tuesday that Georgetown employees will no longer handle calls to SNAP. Instead, two fully uniformed MPD officers will address complaints.

One officer patrolling Burleith and one patrolling West Georgetown will be dispatched to problem houses. When they arrive at the scene, they will assess the situation and decide what action to take. Once they return to campus, they will make a report of the night’s activity to DPS, Torres said.

According to Torres, the new measures come in response to recent criminal incidents off campus and repeated complaints from neighbors.

The alterations to the program will be implemented in early February although the university will announce them sooner.

“I believe that while this program may be perceived as more constricting for students who live off campus in terms of parties, the program really will increase the safety of students as they walk home from school, M Street or anywhere else at night,” GUSA president Kelly Hampton (COL ’05) said.

Hampton emphasized that students should “still be proactive with their own security” and urged students to “lock doors and windows and to walk with others when going home.”

Jeanne Lord, associate vice president for student affairs and the SNAP program coordinator, could not be reached for comment yesterday.