The semester is almost over and most students won't have to pay any more fees around campus for the next three months.
Yet some San Diego State students living in the College Area are still paying an amount equivalent to about two-thirds of the in-state semester tuition: $1,000, for fines after having a noisy party.
Last weekend was the first time a house has been cited since the six-month pilot program started on April 30.
San Diego Police Department officers handed $1,000 fines to each of five residents of a house to be paid by the 10th day after the issuance, according to police.
The recipients are all SDSU students, said Steve Hall, Community Assisted Party Plan coordinator for the SDPD Mid-City division.
"It was given out because a reporting party called in a party and the officers arrived on the scene and they could hear the party from more than 300 feet away," Hall said. "Once they contacted the residents, more than 100 people left.
"They also had to give immediate first aid when they got there to a young adult who'd fallen on his head because he was intoxicated."
Hall said he didn't think the intoxicated man was underage, and that similar parties are what's being targeted.
University Police Lt. Robert McManus said as of May 8, University Police officers haven't issued any administrative citations, but they will be written at excessively loud parties when a DJ is hired, guests are outside the house and alcohol is involved.
"The hope is that we'll get the message across that this kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated up here anymore," he said.
However, he said, fraternities - though they throw numerous, often noisy parties - probably won't be fined because of several components, including too many residents (some fraternity chapter houses have 40 members or more) to track down and give citations to, noise permits for parties when they hire DJs and a current on-campus judicial review process through the IFC that can discipline the fraternities without arresting them or citing them.
"It'd be a last resort," he said. "Only if it was out of control."
There are no set rules in the San Diego Municipal Code 59.5.0501, which Hall said this citation lies under, that state what an "out of control" party is. However, for criminal - not administrative - noise violations, an officer has to be able to hear the noises from the party from 50 feet away or more, as stated by SDMC 59.5.0502, the code that criminal noise citations lie under. There's no such statement in SDMC 59.5.0501, Hall said.
Some students think leaving the discretion up to the officer is unfair, and that the tickets are going to drive them out of living in the College Area.
"They're aware of our displeasure of Mid-City implementing this pilot program, that it's attacking students' wallets," said John Ly, Associated Students vice president of University Affairs. "I believe there are other methods that can be used to create a successful community.
"It's not targeting students, but it's pretty clear that the majority of College Area noise disturbances are people between the ages of 18 and 22. Not all of them are SDSU students; some are community college students and some are military, but a portion of them are (SDSU) students."
Hall and McManus have said that the SDPD and University Police officers have been trained not to issue the citations right away, but as a last resort.
But some College Area residents think it's just what their noisy neighbors deserve.
"I'm very supportive of it because we live a couple of blocks away from here and we've been in the same house for well over 30 years and we've had some horrendous parties," a non-student College Area resident said.
One resident has gone to such lengths as to leave "party favors" outside of The Daily Aztec office in response to a staff editorial opposing the administrative citation program.
An unidentified man was caught on camera leaving a condom, a beer bottle, a fake $1,000 bill and what appeared to be a cup of urine.
Notes accompanied each item with the following statements: "This is piss; it belongs in the toilet, not on my lawn. This is a condom; it belongs in the trash, not on my lawn! This is a beer bottle; it belongs in the recycle bin, not on my lawn! This is a $1,000 bill, it belongs to the city of San Diego, not to the tenants who left the other things on my lawn."
The program follows an active school year of City Council, Land Use and Housing, and College Area Community Council meetings in which College Area non-student residents have repeatedly complained to the city officials about noise problems, a dwindling quality of life, ignorance to the upkeep of their neighborhoods by students and absentee landlords, and the explosion of mini-dorm-style houses that have been built in the area.
"I have seen that there is a correlation, oftentimes, between mini-dorms and parties," McManus said.
After meeting with city officials, including City Attorney Mike Aguirre and City Councilman Jim Madaffer, last month, mini-dorm makers Michael Haaland and Ian Sells announced they'd stop building them.
Now, Madaffer, who oversees the College Area along with SDPD and others, are working to stop the noise, too.
"They're gonna drive students away from living in this area so they'll move to Pacific Beach and Mission Valley because to a student, $1,000 is a lot of money," said Ly, an international security and conflict resolution senior.
He added that he hopes officials realize that even though some people may think the program is working because there aren't going to be as many parties in the next three months, it's because most students are going to be on summer vacation, not living near campus.
"It sucks if (city officials) decide this is something they don't want to do," Ly said. "A lot of students are going to be paying for a program that isn't there anymore.
And if they keep it, they're going to hurt even more students ..."
Hall said the money that partiers pay is going into a general fund for the city of San Diego. He also said he doesn't know what it'll be used for.
Ly, who has overseen A.S.'s Good Neighbor Program this year, said he and Mike Matthews, the 2007-08 vice president of University Affairs, are presenting their ideas to the CACC on May 9 to discuss if and how they'll be cooperating with the citation program.
Ly said the GNP won't be involved in the appeal process, but he hopes the GNP will be able to offer students resources such as phone numbers to the city's Code Compliance Department and SDPD if they get ticketed and want to know why or how to appeal within the allotted 10 days.
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