Madison’s annual Mifflin Street block party has come to an end full of mixed student reactions just after PACE’s preliminary house-party recommendations have been released.
The PACE Project is a campus-community coalition originally formed to reduce the dangers associated with heavy and high-risk drinking and has begun developing ideas that members believe will help to keep house parties on campus safer. The full list of recommendations, along with a house-party guide, are set to be released this fall.
Involvement from students, police, UW administrators, neighborhood association members and property managers are encouraged within the group and the overall effort.
“We’ve heard from a number of constituencies that house parties and safety are a concern,” PACE project coordinator Sudi Ceglarek said. “And we know that about one-quarter of students in detox had been drinking at a house party. That’s why we’ve made house-party safety one of our priorities.”
Some of the preliminary recommendations include providing a better transition for students from university housing to neighborhood leases, establishing forums for tenants to provide more familiarity with the terms of leases and obligations when throwing a house party and involving community police officers in reaching out to new students in neighborhoods.
These preliminary recommendations related directly to the block party this past weekend because the event is house party after house party along the street. In turn, many students expressed mixed reactions to the police involvement at the event.
UW freshman Carolyn Campbell emphasized the great time she had at the block party and how pleased she was with police involvement.
“I felt completely safe the entire day,” Campbell said. “I think the way the police handled it was really great because there’s no way they could have given out tickets to everyone … they kept things under control and made sure things didn’t get out of hand.”
Campbell also said that she never noticed their presence but she knew they were there, which was reassuring.
“I’m glad they were there to make sure that nothing bad happened,” Campbell said. “I almost think people enjoyed them being there … you could even have a picture taken with them.”
However, UW freshman Zach Stern felt differently regarding his first Mifflin block party and police involvement mainly due to the “busting” of the Zeta Beta Tau party the prior evening and what he noted as mere hypocrisy.
“I’m angry that ZBT’s party was broken up and Mifflin Street was perfectly all right,” Stern, ZBT’s Rush Chairman, said. “The party was controlled and safe … only people we knew were allowed in.”
Stern continued by saying that although he had a great time at the block party he was frustrated with the change in police behavior from one day to the next.
“I agree that how they (police) are at Mifflin is cool, but they shouldn’t be one way one day and another the next,” Stern said. “It’d be one thing if they stopped both the block party and house parties, but it’s as if the city is so strapped for cash that it’s handing out tickets instead of raising taxes.”
