Reminiscent of past tension between Duke University students and its nearby Trinity Park neighborhood, resident Faulkner Fox said then, "I really think there is a problem with culture at Duke -- the partying culture." Working collaboratively with residents, students, town and university officials, Duke's longstanding misbehavior problem is much improved.
But Berkeley residents have had enough -- enough of immature and irresponsible behaviors; excessive drinking; public urination; fights; vandalism; theft; nights disrupted by drunken revelry; and property littered with debris from too many nights of heavy drinking by their "best and brightest" young people.
Exasperated residents there filed suit against 70 defendants, including property owners, groups, and 35 fraternities. Lead plaintiff Paul Ghysels, who lives next to a fraternity house, said, "Every resident of Berkeley has the right to live in a peaceful and safe neighborhood." Nearby Berkeley residents, like Trinity Park residents earlier, claim student drinking and partying made their homes nearly uninhabitable.
Claiming public nuisance violations from loud parties, excessive drinking, and other misconduct, in addition to unspecified damages, residents seek to require UC Berkeley to provide live-in adult supervision to monitor fraternity drinking and other activity. With virtually uncontrolled access to alcohol, they assert this environment encourages underage and reckless drinking.
In 2005, UC Berkeley, attempting to calm agitated neighbors, formed a task force to confront this problem. University crackdowns on fraternity and sorority drinking followed a series of troubling incidents. But long-suffering neighbors complain that fraternities continue to encourage underage and excessive drinking, leading to further victimization of residents.
Turning to courts to handle this unresolved town and gown problem, Ghysels claimed that "he hasn't had a peaceful weekend for over a decade." As a "last resort," and joined by other anguished residents, they sought court resolution.
Many Chapel Hill residents have voiced complaints similar to Berkeley and Durham.
Recently named UNC vice vhancellor for Student Affairs, Winston Crisp said earlier, "We don't have a weekend that goes by without a report of alcohol and drug and sexual abuse." He added, "The tolerance of the community has reached its endpoint. The tolerance of the university of cleaning up disasters on a weekly basis is over."
Chapel Hill and Berkeley share a serious underage drinking problem. I'm not encouraging Chapel Hill residents to follow Berkeley's example. To the contrary, I'm suggesting that Berkeley's "last resort" path occurs when town and gown don't work together collaboratively to resolve university issues such as underage drinking, which negatively impacts the larger community.
Like Berkeley residents, Chapel Hillians have the right to a "peaceful and safe" community -- they should not be expected to forfeit that right to accommodate the excesses of thoughtless student drinkers.
Ronald E. Bogle is a retired Superior Court judge and works with the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers.
