Representatives of residents living near Georgetown University issued a statement calling for the release of off-campus student addresses and student license plate information, among other demands.

The Position Paper on Student Behavior and Community Impact was submitted to the Board of Zoning Adjustment last Friday, for consideration in its decision on Georgetown’s 10-Year Campus Plan which is scheduled for Nov. 8.

The paper outlined six demands for students, including limits on noise, excess trash, illegally parked cars, unsafe living arrangements and behavior threatening “peaceful enjoyment” of neighborhood areas. Citing two police visits to one “team house” on T street in Burleith, the paper also advocated prohibiting “team houses.”

To meet these demands, the paper calls for specific remedies, including the release of all off-campus addresses and students’ license plate information to the community. The resolutions would also require students to sign a waiver allowing parental notification of serious violations, allowing students’ parents to be contacted to “promptly inform the parents of such behavior and the sanctions and other consequences for the student’s future at the university.”

The BZA can evaluate these recommendations and may choose to incorporate them into the 10-year plan. The university’s current policies do not allow for the release of student addresses, license information or for contacting parents regarding offenses occurring before disciplinary probation is required.

“We are requesting from the BZA something proactive, something that will offer confidence that standards will be met,” Barbara Zartman, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner 2E04, said. “The university should be in charge of bringing compliance, rather than have the neighborhood police. The university needs to solve the problem.”

The university has implemented new programs to address community complaints, including the new Alliance for Local Living, an invitation-only meeting of students, neighbors and university facilitators designed to promote dialogue between the two groups.

“We want to work constructively with the hotline and police and have the university deal with education,” Robert Andrew, president of the Foxhall Community Citizens Association said. “We don’t want to punish students – we want to work with them.”

“The spirit between the university and the community is the same,” Jeanne Lord, director of off-campus affairs, said. “However, the means of carrying it out differ.”

Andrew agreed that the demands may be flawed.

“We need to make sure we would apply the same standard to non-students and non-Georgetown students,” he said.

Zartman authored the paper with input from the Community Association of Georgetown, Georgetown Residents’ Alliance, Foxhall Civic Community Association and the Cloisters in Georgetown. She is running for re-election against Justin Kopa (COL ’03).

“In general, the paper had a nice idea,” Kopa said. “Some may be OK ideas, but others will not work. The best way would be to treat students as the adults that we are.”

Kopa cited the parental notification recommendation as particularly ineffectual.

“Although some students do things that are wrong, not all who sign a waiver would. We need to deal with students as adults, not call their parents.”

Zartman said the proposal would benefit Georgetown students, as it would clarify if whether behavior problems in the neighborhood were associated with Georgetown students or were non-Georgetown students.

“Others’ behavior should not be blamed on the university. The university tends to bear a lot of responsibility for things that happen in the neighborhood.”

The current campus plan promised to house 100 percent of students, Zartman said. “They’re not providing housing, but asking the community to do it. The university must care for the welfare of students.”

Lord did not agree with the proposal, saying, “The university submitted what we felt was a comprehensive plan. We devoted considerably more resources, thought and hard work in trying to respond to the community and BZA.”

“Having 25 percent or higher renters in a community changes the character of that neighborhood,” Andrew said. “We’re asking for a 700 cap. If there is a small number of students, they are free to live as any other.”

According to Lord “If it’s not enough, that’s unfortunate, but we have to serve our students.”

“Pitting students against residents is not going to solve the problem,” Kopa said. “There are some bad students and there are some bad neighbors. We need to deal with each on an individual basis as mature adults.”

Area universities are required to submit 10-year plans outlining building proposals every decade to local authorities. The Georgetown plan currently under review by the BZA calls for the addition of several new buildings on campus as well as an increase in enrollment.

Related Links

More Neighbor Problems for GU (9/29)

Meeting Aims To Address Concerns (9/29)

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