By Mike Naughton

After numerous reports of Northeastern students disturbing the surrounding neighborhood communities, Northeastern officials are working harder than ever to make sure the rights of community members, as well as those of the students, are being respected.

For years, Northeastern’s Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs has had members of its office tour the communities around Northeastern to get a sense of how students are representing themselves within the community. Officials within the office routinely walk the areas around the Northeastern campus, near the privately owned and operated buildings, until the early morning hours every weekend from the beginning of the fall semester until the end of the spring semester.

The Director of the Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs Jeff Doggett handles the complaints from community members, as well as some Northeastern students, concerning the behavior of other Northeastern students over the weekends.

According to Doggett, the biggest complaint is excessive noise.

The News met up with Doggett early Sunday morning around 1 a.m. to find out how students were really behaving.

Students could be seen and heard up and down Hemenway and Gainsborough Streets, some chanting “Toga, Toga, Toga,” while wearing white sheets as togas. Other students could be heard screaming “Yankees suck” across the street to someone in the window of a fourth floor apartment wearing a Yankees shirt. Doggett said incidents like this typically happen between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.

“I want the students to understand that the little things make the difference,” Doggett said. “When students are looking for apartments, they usually forget to see who is living next door, which is sometimes an elderly woman, a couple with a young baby or a doctor or nurse who works odd hours.”

The Hemenway Street and Gainsborough Street neighborhoods are home to a number of elderly residents and families that have been in the area for years, some from when Northeastern was still primarily a commuter school.

“The hardest part is getting the communities to understand that they should expect [the excessive noise] living so close to a college,” Doggett said. “However, some of these people have been living here for 20 years and they are not going to be driven out by [students].”

Eric Stevens, a landlord on Symphony Road, said that the behavior of students on the weekends is atrocious.

“I have my tenants sign a lease agreement that says if they throw a party they will not be tenants anymore,” Stevens said. “It’s the students in these other buildings where the landlords do not care, they are the ones bringing the neighborhood down.”

After receiving complaints from tired neighbors, a party of approximately 100 people and four kegs in the basement of a building that is home to both Northeastern students and community members on Symphony Road, was broken up at roughly 1:30 a.m. Sunday by Boston Police.

According to Doggett, this particular building was also home to the father of a one-month-old baby. The father suffered three sleepless nights because of loud noise inside and outside his building.

“My job is not making sure people are not enjoying themselves,” Doggett said. “I just do not want to see people ruining the lives of others.”

Many students agree with Doggett’s reasoning and, like the area neighbors, are sometimes annoyed with the loud noise.

“Sometime I want to sit and study and I get aggravated with the noise,” said Elizabeth Kalemos, a freshman pharmacy major. “I know of parties where everyone makes sure to keep the noise quiet and low key.”

Junior Ken Dellovo, a business minor, said the university is doing what it can in a crazy area.

“I do not think it’s fair when kids throw bottles out windows,” Dellovo said. “Boston is a college town, but it is also a small city and people’s backyards and front yards are right around here.”

Doggett and his department notifies students of what they should be careful of and how they should be conscious of their neighbors.

“Our biggest concern is that the problems progressively are getting worse year after year,” Doggett said. “What goes on in someone’s apartment is their own business, but the students forget that at 1 a.m., their neighbors are trying to sleep.”

Even students who do not live on campus that are caught involved in illegal activities are subject to arrest and may be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR).

OSCCR Director Bill Fischer said that his office is meant to help students make better choices.

“We try to be educational and developmental through the sanction process,” Fischer said. “It comes down to students understanding that they have to be good neighbors and that they can not engage in things living off campus, that they would not be able to living on campus.”

Doggett said he wishes students would understand that they are ambassadors of this university and what they do reflects upon Northeastern.

“Most of our students are good students,” Doggett said. “However, good or bad, all students are ambassadors.”