Town-and-gown relations have soured again in College Area, where residents say that San Diego State University students are partying recklessly in private homes, potentially adding to the local surge in COVID-19 infections.
The anger comes as students are moving into campus dorms and into private dwellings nearby in preparation for the fall semester, which begins on Monday.
The fraternity-driven party scene in College Area has been a problem for decades and it reached a scary moment last fall when it contributed to a COVID-19 outbreak on campus.
SDSU placed its residential students under quarantine and temporarily shut down the small number of in-person classes it was teaching. All other classes were offered online.
The university is returning to mostly in-person instruction this fall. All students, faculty and staff who enter the campus must be vaccinated. SDSU cannot make that requirement of people who live off-campus. And it has very limited authority to control the behavior of students living in private dwellings.
The latest controversy is partly due to an incident that occurred on Tuesday. Residents say someone put up a “You Honk, We Drink” sign outside a student bash on Montezuma Road, during a party that lasted well into the night. There also have been big parties on Ewing Street, where students have been setting off fireworks near the edge of a dry canyon, residents say.
Students, faculty and staff who visit SDSU must prove that they’ve been vaccinated. But the university can’t make that requirement of people who simply live near campus.
The situation worries Michelle White, who lives on Gary Street, close to where the Montezuma party occurred.
“Kids are going to interact differently than most adults,” White told the Union-Tribune. “And with them partying they’re more likely to transmit (the virus).
“We’re always walking down the street or going into the store in this area. So it makes me a little bit more nervous that I could potentially catch the virus even as a vaccinated person.”
Her neighbor, Gail Fogelman, said, “This worries me. If they’re so disrespectful with the party situation can I really expect them to be honest and tell me whether they’re vaccinated?
“I don’t think so.”
The anxiety is tied to infection rates, which have been rising. County health officials say that 1,117 infections were reported on Wednesday. The number was typically below 100 just two months ago. The county also said that nearly 600 people are in local hospitals with COVID-19, a three-fold increase over what was being reported in June.
Residents are also worn out by parties in their neighorhood.
The Montezuma party “was one of the worst I’ve experienced in the 30 years I’ve been living here,” said Larry Gustafson, who lives a short distance away, on La Dorna Street.
“It started about 4 p.m. and was still going on when I went to bed after midnight. We don’t have a vendetta; we want students to have fun. But they’re being disrespectful.”
White said, “I asked students to take the sign down. My husband and I work from home. We don’t want to hear the noise. They told us, ‘It’s a birthday party.’”
Fogelman was shaken by the fireworks, saying, “They could start a wildfire. It’s hard to tell police where they’re coming from because there’s so much of it.”
White’s husband, Ryan, said, “I foresee things getting worse with the fact that there’s new dwelling units being installed and more students are moving to this residential neighborhood.”
He was referring to the big increase in accessory dwelling units (ADUs), or “granny flats,” that are being built in College Area. They’re being snapped up by SDSU students. The university might be adding to the demand. It reduced the number of beds available on campus by 1,500 to promote social distancing in hopes of helping stop the spread of the virus.
Luke Wood, vice president for student affairs and campus diversity at SDSU, said he recognizes that there’s a lot of anxiety in the community about the Delta variant of the virus.
But he added after this week’s parties occurred, “We have not seen elevated (partying) yet this year and we have multiple interventions to address it when it occurs. We do take their concerns seriously and will be working pro-actively this year to address them in the interest of public health.”
As many as 12 campus representatives will roam College Area to monitor student behavior this fall. That’s twice the number of people who did the job last year.
SDSU also is introducing a program in which it will send text messages to students, notifying them when a complaint has been made about activity in their homes. In some cases, the advisories could lead to a visit by police or disciplinary action by the university. The program begins this weekend.
SDSU also has increased the number of social activities it offers on campus to give students an alternative to partying in private homes.
Wood concedes that there are limits to what SDSU can do. The university has little authority off-campus. He made reference to the party where the “You Honk, We Drink” sign was put up.
“If they’re of a lawful age and are on private property, they have a right to do that,” Wood said.
Union-Tribune reporter Jonathan Wosen contributed to this story.
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August 19, 2021 at 09:38PM
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Return of SDSU party scene during COVID-19 surge angers College Area residents - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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