The Community Word

When I decided to complete my education at Eastern Illinois University, I based that decision on three criteria:

1. EIU had a good journalism program.

2. Many of my friends were going there.

3. And, it had a reputation for being a party school.

Well, my friends and I got a good education. And, we drank. We drank a lot. And we didn’t confine our alcoholic shenanigans to the insides of our dorm rooms and apartments.

I found myself thinking of my college days this past week as I read and commented on the events outside the Sigma Nu fraternity on the night of September 19. I’ll recap for those few Community Word readers who spent the latter half of September hiding under rocks:

Peoria City Council member Barbara Van Auken, 2nd District, was attending a dinner party at the home of Andrew Rand, owner of the AMT ambulance service and himself a candidate for Peoria County Board. In the interest of full disclosure, I note that I’m a casual friend of Barbara.

Rand got a call from a neighbor who wanted his help getting police to respond to complaints about the noise coming out of party at the Sigma Nu house, located at 1300 W. Fredonia Ave. Barbara ended up taking the call. She and Rand, as well as another party attendee, decided to walk the few blocks from Rand’s Moss Avenue home to the frat house. About a block away, they noticed a group of students milling about outside. They found several tables had been set up outside the frat house. Plastic cups sat unclaimed atop these tables, and Barbara assumes these contained alcohol and were placed there by the students as they went inside the home, giving all the ability to claim that they weren’t among those drinking illegally.

It went downhill from there. Barbara and the president of the frat got into an argument. BU police showed up and Barbara verbally spared with them. She wanted them to do something about the party, which was disturbing the neighbors. They insisted the party wasn’t too noisy. BU police wrote in their report that Barbara was intoxicated and that she poked one of them in the shoulder and used salty language. She says she was not intoxicated, although she had some drinks at the dinner party.

Peoria Police officers were called. They issued a citation for noise to the fraternity. The fraternity asked that Barbara and Rand be charged with trespassing. That didn’t happen.

The entire confrontation took about two hours, and some of the Peoria officers called to the scene had been called from a search for a criminal suspect.

Whether or not Barbara was in the wrong depends on who you ask. Nearby homeowner and resident association say that noise, litter and other illegal activity by BU students is up compared to last year. About 50 citations have been issues in the immediate area since July. Students and their parents complain that the permanent residents are picking on the students and have unreasonable expectations.

First, a city council member should be applauded for personally investigating constituents’ complaints. The idea she should have simply passed along the complaint to the police and give it no further thought is contrary to what Peorians have come to expect from their district council members, especially in the 2nd District.

Second, Barbara didn’t pick the time, place or circumstances. Sigma Nu did, when they held late-evening outside party in which alcohol was served. Van Auken was at a private INDOOR affair when she got the phone call, and if she was intoxicated (which she denies) she had every right to be. She just as easily could have been sipping tea at some other event, or at home. Also, she didn’t drive to the location; she walked, and didn’t violate any traffic laws.

Naturally, the Journal Star editorial board found Van Auken to be the one overwhelmingly at fault for this situation. Oh, and they blame Mayor Jim Ardis for it too. If I thought there was any respect from the public for the Journal Star’s editorial opinion on anything, I’d be worried. Scorn from the JSEB usually translates into MORE votes, not less.

The question of “unreasonable expectations” brings me back to my college experience.

I did most of my social drinking at the bars. I didn’t have a car, so I walked the half-mile or so up 6th street to The Cellar and other assorted drinkeries. The walk to the bars was uneventful. The walk home, not so much.

The homes along 6th Street remind me of the homes in the Moss-Bradley area, a mix of well-preserved structures occupied by college professionals and those less-well preserved, often occupied by student renters. There was even a sorority house.

There wasn’t a bush or a tree along that street that wasn’t used to relieve student bladders. Often, stomach contents needed to be emptied. Empty drink cups were discarded as soon as their usefulness came to an end. And of course, we needed to share our thoughts and opinions with the world, loudly, after midnight. Homeowners occasionally complained about out antics. But the general consensus was that the right of college students to “blow off steam” is sacrosanct, and besides, this little one-horse town wouldn’t even exist if they weren’t there to shop in their stores and pay their rent, so the townies just need to shut the Hell up and take it.

In other words, we sounded a lot like Bradley University students do today when talking about Peoria.

Of course, I look back on this behavior with not a little bit of shame. I sometimes think I ought to drive back to Charleston and knock on every door on 6th Street and offer my apologies.

And that is the lesson I would hope these students take away from this. Behavior they consider part of the traditional college experience now might very well end up a source of internal embarrassment if not public humiliation and shame. Right now, they are living in an environment that insulates them from social and sometimes legal consequences of their actions. They are surrounded by peers who share their attitudes toward excessive drinking and general lack of social restraint. Their college coddles their behavior (despite public comments by BU President Joanne Glasser that the college was cracking down on exactly this sort of thing) and their parents seem willing to run interference for them with the news media. It is as if no one has taken lessons from the two alcohol-related deaths from last year.

College is supposed to be where young, nominal adults go to finish off the process of growing up. At Bradley University, the unofficial plan seems to be to do as much as possible to keep that from happening.

– Billy Dennis is the owner and site administrator for The Blog Peoria Network a free blogging and community journalism network serving Peoria and neighboring communities. His personal site, the Peoria Pundit, has commented on news, politics and the media since 2002.