Within the last month CSU has seen several parties get out of control and police have been called in order to control the situation. Apartment complexes facilitated to student housing are stepping up their game when it comes to security, including tracking which residents are present at out of control pool parties and revoking some of their resident privileges.
These security measures are in response to large parties for the past several weekends. Management saw the pool party on Saturday, May 3 grow exponentially to a count of approximately 250 people, said Jean Robbins, Ram’s Village property manager.
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“Unfortunately this past Saturday taught us that even with all these precautions, a crowd can grow so quickly that we easily lose control and the police have to be called to help us protect our residents and our property,” Robbins said.
In response to this, Ram’s Village management kicked students out, shut down the pool and revoked the pool rights of the residents who attended the gathering.
Ram’s Village has also implemented further security that includes contacting their security company to provide daytime patrols during finals week instead of their usual only nighttime patrol, according to Robbins.
“If the gathering is mostly residents and non-residents complaining about the noise, we generally will leave the group alone and let them have fun as long as our major rules are being followed – no alcohol and no glass containers,” Robbins said. “If the group is mostly non-residents and they are uncooperative with management’s requests to comply with posted rules, then our last step is to call the police for assistance.”
The Grove has also seen large pool parties for the past month, some of which have ended in the police being contacted and the safety of individuals being violated. During a pool party at the Grove on the weekend of April 26, a CSU student who attended said that an individual dove into the pool and cracked his head open, and in response the cops and paramedics came.
A sophomore biology major, Mariah Witt, said that this party had been going on for quite some time. She said it was probably good the cops came,as the possibility of underage drinking could have presented itself, the carrying capacity for the pool area was probably over its limits and people had the potential to injure themselves.
“The cops were nice and just told everyone to leave and everyone listened,” Witt said.
CSU has been making steps this year to facilitate conversation with larger apartment complexes which cater to students to make sure situations are safe and they understand how to handle the potential dangers of large social gatherings.
“Before complexes even open up for student living we have been talking to them about things they should expect, help them understand ordinances and city rules. We talk to them about what rules they have, what type of onsite management will be in place,” Emily Allen, CSU community liaison between the city and campus said.
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Allen also lets complexes know about the resources available to them such as mediation programs or simply letting them know they have the right to call the police if anything ever gets out of hand. Further, if Allen finds sees updates on social media regarding parties she can let apartment complexes know beforehand.
Even though the pool areas can be first managed by the apartment complexes themselves, if they get out of hand, the Fort Collins Police Department is responsible for the situation. The CSU police can back up the Fort Collins police but it is in the jurisdiction of the city to take anything that occurs off campus, according to CSU communications coordinator Dell Rae Ciaravola.
Many of the apartment complexes emphasize that pools and complex amenities are there for residents enjoyment.
“We want students to have fun,” Robbins said. “But we also want them to follow rules.”
Collegian Reporter Josephine Bush can be reached at news@collegian.com.