2008 Woodie Awards
EDITORIAL: Reclaim our good name
Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: Op-Ed
- Page 1 of 1
The article began with the all too realistic tale of a West Chester resident. His name is Bob Haniwalt and he lives on South Walnut Street. Haniwalt told Nancy Petersen of The Philadelphia Inquirer that his front door was kicked in sometime in the early morning hours of a November day last year. He told Petersen that young people urinate on his bushes, break limbs off of his young trees and shatter windows. He said that the students are sometimes so intoxicated that they walk into the wrong house.
Is anyone really surprised?
Alcohol sales topped $6 million in the borough alone last year and it would probably be a pretty safe bet to assign a large chunk of that bill to students.
Also staggering is the number of citations issued by the West Chester Borough Police Department. Non-traffic citations jumped more than 50 percent, from 1,401 in 2003 to 2,134 in 2006. That's an increase of 733 in just three years. In that same time frame, public drunkenness arrests increased 71 percent, disorderly conduct arrests increased 53 percent, and DUI arrests increased an incredible 45 percent.
Attribute that to the growing number of bars and dining locations in the downtown area. The number has more than doubled from 25 to 55 in just the last four years.
But how many new police officers has the borough hired in that time? Zero.
Not a single police officer has been hired to work for the WCPD since 2002. Now try to follow along: the number of eating establishments has more than doubled, arrests in many categories are sharply rising and borough residents have laundry lists of complaints. Why hasn't the borough responded?
The borough only bares some of the responsibility. Most of it lies with us-the students. West Chester University students are blamed for many of the boroughs problems. The borough is nationally ranked as one of the best places to raise a family, and it is locally looked upon as one of the best places to live with a very high quality of life. The University, while an essential asset to the region, is not an essential asset to the borough of West Chester. The borough is paid no property tax for the land WCU occupies and most students who work in the borough pay their wage taxes to the town in which they are a permanent resident. It's fair to say that University students are stereotyped-and rightfully so.
Are most students who drink until 2 a.m. a nuisance? No. But some are.
College students do a lot of good. Most of us are here first for an education. We've come to get a degree in our chosen field and we've come to do well so we can compete in the real world. Students who drink one beer or ten beers fall into that category of "most of us" too. And as long as they are of age, they are entitled to drink as much alcohol as they wish. It must, however, be done responsibly. The student that kicks in their neighbor's front door, or pees on their lawn, or walks into their home at two o'clock in the morning is the student that is responsible for the label that our community puts on us.
Some students drink, some students do not, but we are all classified the same way when a very small minority of us act irresponsibly.
*The article referenced was published on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.
Is anyone really surprised?
Alcohol sales topped $6 million in the borough alone last year and it would probably be a pretty safe bet to assign a large chunk of that bill to students.
Also staggering is the number of citations issued by the West Chester Borough Police Department. Non-traffic citations jumped more than 50 percent, from 1,401 in 2003 to 2,134 in 2006. That's an increase of 733 in just three years. In that same time frame, public drunkenness arrests increased 71 percent, disorderly conduct arrests increased 53 percent, and DUI arrests increased an incredible 45 percent.
Attribute that to the growing number of bars and dining locations in the downtown area. The number has more than doubled from 25 to 55 in just the last four years.
But how many new police officers has the borough hired in that time? Zero.
Not a single police officer has been hired to work for the WCPD since 2002. Now try to follow along: the number of eating establishments has more than doubled, arrests in many categories are sharply rising and borough residents have laundry lists of complaints. Why hasn't the borough responded?
The borough only bares some of the responsibility. Most of it lies with us-the students. West Chester University students are blamed for many of the boroughs problems. The borough is nationally ranked as one of the best places to raise a family, and it is locally looked upon as one of the best places to live with a very high quality of life. The University, while an essential asset to the region, is not an essential asset to the borough of West Chester. The borough is paid no property tax for the land WCU occupies and most students who work in the borough pay their wage taxes to the town in which they are a permanent resident. It's fair to say that University students are stereotyped-and rightfully so.
Are most students who drink until 2 a.m. a nuisance? No. But some are.
College students do a lot of good. Most of us are here first for an education. We've come to get a degree in our chosen field and we've come to do well so we can compete in the real world. Students who drink one beer or ten beers fall into that category of "most of us" too. And as long as they are of age, they are entitled to drink as much alcohol as they wish. It must, however, be done responsibly. The student that kicks in their neighbor's front door, or pees on their lawn, or walks into their home at two o'clock in the morning is the student that is responsible for the label that our community puts on us.
Some students drink, some students do not, but we are all classified the same way when a very small minority of us act irresponsibly.
*The article referenced was published on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.
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Lessie Cardinal
posted 3/26/07 @ 11:22 PM EST
I would just like to say I am strongly offended by this editorial. I realize many students do act irresposibly but even though the residents and the person who wrote this article disagree that this town needs the students, IT DOES! Even though the university does not pay property taxes who do you think pumps in the economy for this city. (Continued…)
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