2008 Woodie Awards
Mixed bag from Off-Campus Affairs
Issue date: 9/11/02 Section: Editorials
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The presence of student residents off campus is, in too many ways, a nightmare for all concerned. Undergraduates living in any of the multitude of neighborhoods that Hoyas have spread to must adjust to a number of new challenges: bills to pay, long treks to make, landlords and neighbors to placate. Permanent residents, of course, have to put up with loud, slovenly and sometimes rude young neighbors. The University is called to be an arbiter between these opposing positions, and it seeks to do so.
Relations between students and neighbors are dealt with at the administrative level by the Office of Off-Campus Affairs, headed by Director of Off-Campus Student Life Jeanne Lord. OCA offers a number of programs designed to ameliorate the tension between these groups, but these plans have had mixed results.
A few of the office's efforts stand as models of administrative success. Most notably, the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program has been a very welcome innovation. Begun in 1990, SNAP offers an alternative to police involvement stemming from party disputes. Instead of immediately dialing the Metropolitan Police Department, concerned residents instead call a University-run hotline. SNAP representatives are sent to the home and offer warnings to the students causing the problems. Off-campus Affairs then handles the issue internally, so long as further incidents do not necessitate calling MPD.
Residents like this plan because they feel the University is taking some responsibility for its students; students like it because they are less likely to be arrested without warning. Everyone wins.
The same is true for a second, simpler activity of OCA. Because the district no longer conducts bulk trash pick-up days, Georgetown, through OCA, now conducts a series of pick-ups for off-campus students. This clears the streets of the inevitable debris associated with moving once a year, helping to eliminate one major historical sticking point in town-gown relations — trash removal — while making students' lives easier.
Relations between students and neighbors are dealt with at the administrative level by the Office of Off-Campus Affairs, headed by Director of Off-Campus Student Life Jeanne Lord. OCA offers a number of programs designed to ameliorate the tension between these groups, but these plans have had mixed results.
A few of the office's efforts stand as models of administrative success. Most notably, the Student Neighborhood Assistance Program has been a very welcome innovation. Begun in 1990, SNAP offers an alternative to police involvement stemming from party disputes. Instead of immediately dialing the Metropolitan Police Department, concerned residents instead call a University-run hotline. SNAP representatives are sent to the home and offer warnings to the students causing the problems. Off-campus Affairs then handles the issue internally, so long as further incidents do not necessitate calling MPD.
Residents like this plan because they feel the University is taking some responsibility for its students; students like it because they are less likely to be arrested without warning. Everyone wins.
The same is true for a second, simpler activity of OCA. Because the district no longer conducts bulk trash pick-up days, Georgetown, through OCA, now conducts a series of pick-ups for off-campus students. This clears the streets of the inevitable debris associated with moving once a year, helping to eliminate one major historical sticking point in town-gown relations — trash removal — while making students' lives easier.