Aldermen established a subcommittee to discuss student behavior, after Northwestern officials appeared at a city committee meeting Monday and promised to work with residents and students to maintain the peace.
Students, administrators, nearby neighbors, and alds. Arthur Newman (1st), Joseph Kent (5th) and Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th) will report to the city’s Human Services Committee.
Vice President for Business and Finance Eugene Sunshine, Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis and University Police Chief Bruce Lewis spoke at Monday’s meeting, telling aldermen and frustrated residents that NU is working to curb disruptive behavior through UP’s expanded jurisdiction and an expansion of the university’s code of conduct to encompass off-campus incidents.
“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again,” Sunshine told aldermen. “On behalf of the university, we apologize for the behavior.”
Sunshine added that the expanded code of conduct has deterred students from unruly behavior in recent weeks.
But some neighbors told the committee that Halloween weekend brought out disruptive student behavior — a problem that they said has increased over the past few years.
“All of these Halloween decorations that these little kids had put out on our porches were totally smashed,” said Judy Fiske, who has lived on the 2300 block of Sherman Avenue for more than 30 years and is a member of the Northeast Evanston Historic District Association. “The problem that we’re having most recently is that when you try to talk to the (students) you get a kind of hostility back.”
Some residents also called for higher penalties for alcohol citations and for houses repeatedly cited with noise violations. Banis said a higher fine for alcohol violations would help.
“I have suggested previously that the fine of $75 for alcohol violations is far too low,” Banis said. “If you want to put some teeth into a fine, double it or more.”
Banis’ other suggestions for improvement included requiring a meeting with an officer after an alcohol citation, “red tags” on the houses of repeat offenders after three citations and working with local liquor stores to establish a keg-tracking program so police could figure out who purchased alcohol for parties.
But Banis said although 146 students have been cited by UP so far this quarter, the majority of the 3,382 students who live off campus have behaved well. “The issues we have in the community are very serious,” Banis said. “But our students are not rioting, they’re not wantonly destroying property.”
Responding to residents’ complaints, Chief Frank Kaminski of Evanston Police Department said he has identified six “nuisance premises” — apartments that have been cited twice for noise violations. He said he has already met with students from three of the apartments and discussed plans to end the problem. The students have 30 days after meeting with Kaminski to provide EPD with a plan for solving the problem in their residence. After that time period, the students could be subject to fines.
“The three students I’ve called in so far have been very cooperative,” Kaminski said. “I think this is an effective tool.”
Residents and alderman also suggested targeting absentee landlords and punishing them if renters are disruptive.
Ald. Ann Rainey (8th), who attended the meeting but does not sit on the committee, said the city should consider licensing landlords.
Also Monday night, after a debate between neighbors, the committee decided to continue its discussion of a proposed security camera at the intersection of Dodge Avenue and Main Street. The committee will debate the issue at its Dec. 1 meeting, when it will consider implementing a survey of neighbors to test the popularity of the cameras.
The committee also agreed to hold a public forum in March to discuss a possible smoking ban for Evanston businesses.
