On Tuesday, April 17, the Campus Community Council (CCC) met at the Plymouth Senior Center to address the current issues that the town of Plymouth is involved it. Tim Keefe led the discussion, which was kicked off with guest speaker Paul Berton, a landlord at the University of New Hampshire and founder/President of the Durham Landlord Association whose main purpose is to increase communication and support between landlords in the Durham area.
Mr. Berton was asked to speak at the CCC to share his knowledge, experience and suggestions on the topic of renting off-campus apartments to college students. Having parent co-signers on individual student leases was his main point. The desired effect of his approach is that it will hopefully create more caution in the actions of the student through the “presence” of a parent figure. Also, students who live in the same apartment but under separate contracts are not at risk of being responsible for any additional rent if, for example, one of the roommates moves out. He acknowledged how this helped with the comfort level of mom and dad. “Parents will co-sign for their own child in a heartbeat. But they don’t want to co-sign for the other students.”
Berton also emphasized the use of an unofficial night patrol. Grad students in their late twenties are hired by landlords to act as an RA of off campus apartments, with the task of walking around at night to make sure noise levels stay down and to prevent any public disturbances. This is used only as a precautionary method to inform students when they are getting too loud. “They do not go out to look for a problem,” said Berton. As a Plymouth State alum of ’76, Berton understands what college life is all about, and shared his views with the council. “What they do in their apartments is not our business. Don’t make it our business.”
A separate matter at hand was the upcoming Spring Fling weekend. Jen White, from the Student Affairs Office, and Ezra Dalton, from the Student Activity Committee produced the itinerary for the event, which included Battle of the Bands on May 4. Saturday will be made up of a compilation of small events around campus from 11:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. Dropkick Murphy’s will be performing in the evening, however this year the number of guest passes has been lowered to one pass per student.
Unsurprisingly, Spring Fling raised questions of safety. Deputy Chief Tom Morrison from the Plymouth Fire Department is planning on making sure that the occupancy levels of apartments and bars do not exceed a safe limit. Plymouth Campus Police Chief John Clark added that town, campus, state, and other police forces will be coming together again for added security. “We are hoping to work together with students to make this a safe event.” Volunteers will also be assisting with overseeing the event.
The Student Government is working on projects of their own. They plan on increasing communications and relations with other New Hampshire universities, getting mandatory healthcare for students, and coordinating the upcoming elections for Student Body Government.
Other projects are currently in the works. $15,000 has been raised so far toward having Presidential candidates visit PSU, and $32,000 has been raised for the implementation of a new scholarship endowment fund. This potential scholarship would be used as a post-graduation gift to students who excelled in their involvement in extra-curricular activities during their time at PSU.
The meeting was wrapped up with some older topics. On the subject of parking, Paul SanSoucie reported that students are making frequent use of the new parking meters, resulting in more available parking spots on Main Street. The new parking lot on Green Street, scheduled to be available by next semester, will also help the parking situation on and around campus. Bridge construction is six months ahead of schedule and may be open for traffic as early as mid-June and completely finished by the end of the year.
The final Campus Community Council meeting will be held on May 8.