Once again, Amherst has been named one of the best college towns by yet another university-ranking magazine. Students may rest assured: They are spending the “best years of their life” in a well-qualified location. Some in the unrelated-to-the-academia segment of Amherst’s population are willing to challenge that statement, or at least rephrase it: Students are having too much of a good time, occasionally at others’ expense.

It is commonly known that Amherst residents and students have often been at odds when it comes to their living conditions. Crowded together in a small area, tensions between the two parties can run high. Amherst is home to  27,000 students attending University of Massachusetts alone. The community could not have anticipated such a rapid expansion. The university continues to increase in size, admitting a larger amount of students who must be accommodated..

Students and residents are forced to cooperate, somehow. The latter complain about the excess of students, noise and numerous bylaw violations. The former will admit to none of the above accusations, defending their innocence until proven guilty or until caught with an open container of alcohol in the street. Are the residents viewing the town as being besieged by students? Or are the people simply asking for peaceful collaboration?

Many events that ratchet up this tension start with a noise complaint, and end with the arrival of the police. Other issues of tension include the disregard for housing bylaw regulations, multiple cars parked on lawns and cleanliness concerns (piles of empty beer cans and crumpled pizza boxes are the certifying credentials of off-campus college housing).

The town decided to fight back. It passed multiple laws to limit the students’ activities, such as the famous town bylaw which forbids more than four unrelated individuals from sharing a household. Additional rules and fines soon followed.  Unlawful alcohol consumption fees increased; open container violation charges were raised from $50 to $300 (this was partly sponsored by the Campus and Community Coalition to Reduce High Risk Drinking). Noise violation fines have similarly augmented from $100 to $300. Open container violations are most common, followed by those of excessive noise. It is unfortunate that students are forced to settle down not out of respect for themselves or the community but out of fear of financial penalty.

In addition, Amherst police introduced various other initiatives to control students’ behavior; some of them include mailing warning letters to the parents or guardians of exceedingly vigorous offenders. However, residents do not rely on these measures, as they often prove to be unsuccessful. Every fall, the town is swarmed with an increasing number of students who believe it is their obligation to make their presence known.

This is not to say that all UMass students, by courtesy, should have a period of lights-out at eleven o’clock. Everyone has their respective schedule and one’s desire to start drinking on Thursday should not have priority over someone else’s desire to sleep. However, when one chooses to resort to violence to defend their right of drinking, there is a problem.

At the same time, the infrastructure of Amherst is in part dependent on the presence of students. When they leave, the effect on the town is significantly more profound than simply an empty campus. Amherst becomes deserted and the pace of living changes. Buses run on a different schedule, forcing residents to accommodate. All the job openings filled by students are seasonal; only a selected few are willing to stay in the area during breaks to continue working. Crime rate is increasingly higher during school breaks, among the residents and among the students, who often leave valuables unsecured, making them easy targets.

Such a process of influx and efflux in population does not have a positive effect. The town should consider implementing policies which accommodate not only the undergraduate population, but also the residents. The students, in turn, need to be more respectful toward the community in which they live, even if their presence is temporary.

Yevgeniya Lomakina is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].