By Michael Naughton

Community members from neighborhoods surrounding the Northeastern campus gathered for a City Council meeting at the Boston Latin School Feb. 26 to testify their concerns with what some called “disrespectful” student behavior.

Vice President of Public Affairs Robert Gittens, Assoc-iate Director of Community Relations Jeff Doggett, Boston Police officials and administrators from other area universities also testified on a variety of issues from the incidents that occurred on Feb. 1, to student behavior on weekends.

“[The students] are disrespectful in our residential neighborhoods,” said Mary-anne O’Keefe, a Mission Hill resident who also said she believes all students should live on campus. “This is not special occasion behavior, it is every night behavior.”

The behavior of students has become too much for some residents to take, and some are leaving their homes as a result.

“We are thinking about moving out,” said Meredith Trudell about her family that resides on Symphony Road.

During the meeting, Coun-cilor Ross said the Northeastern Police Depart-ment (NUPD) is being overly aggressive, arresting 420 students in 2002. He said the police departments of Boston College, Boston University and Harvard University arrested 78 of their students combined in 2002.

“[Northeastern] has an overly aggressive police policy which causes students to act out when they start living off campus,” Ross said. “We really, really need to see the NU police start to be proactive in the neighborhoods. There should be no more excuses.”

Some student leaders also attended the meeting.

“The City Council failed miserably in its ability to hold a forum that should have secured its original purpose. Even community members did not have an ample amount of time to speak,” said Student Government President Mich-ael Romano said. “It is disappointing that [the forum] was a classic political photo-op to say that the City Council meets the needs of the community, but yet the young people in the community did not have the opportunity to speak freely.”

Other community members who testified during the meeting said the noise during the night of the Super Bowl riots was “shocking and frightening” and compared the noise and crowds on Hemenway Street and Symphony Road to Times Square in New York City during New Years Eve or New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

“The night in question [Feb. 1] shocked and frightened me. I heard it so loud that it was unbelieveable to me,” said Richard Orareo, a Fenway resident for over 20 years. “People say not to point fingers, but I do because I think what should have been done was not done. [President Richard] Freeland should have anticipated this. Matt-hews Arena and Blackman Auditorium should have had events [for the Superbowl].”

After hearing community members testify for almost three hours, Ross questioned the absence of senior Boston Police officals as well as Freeland and Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier.

“We have had three meetings and I have yet to see any police officers that are higher ranking than the ones present here tonight. The [Northeastern] campus police need to play a more active role. I have been to dozens of meetings and have yet to see the [Northeastern] chief of police. It is very, very disturbing,” Ross said. “It is a shame [the officials] were not here tonight.”

Senior Northeastern officials were not the only ones missing from the meeting. While student leaders were present, the students they represent were not. SGA president Michael Romano attributes the lack of student presence to the lack of effort by the City Council to secure the meeting’s original purpose.

Ross said before the meeting finished he would be working on legislation that would “make a difference in how we address the issue of student behavior” and how he would like to see off campus housing eliminated.

“We are trying to draft some legislation that will get to the issue of reporting statistics such as crime, drinking and other types of activities currently going unreported,” Ross said. “We need to see students moving back on campus and they need to vacate the neighborhoods.”