Non-affiliates disturb Santa Clara community, security

By Jessica Alway

Reports filed by Campus Safety since the beginning of the school year indicate a growing number of non-affiliate students disrupting the university community.

"They are getting here one of two ways," said Philip J. Beltran, the assistant director of Campus Safety Services, who has noticed the large number of non-Santa Clara students coming on campus, "We have an open campus without walls surrounding us. So they are either just walking in or being invited here by people that go here."

Beltran says there is always an influx of invited and uninvited guests when students are partying or have a lot of free time.

Non-affiliate students are those identified as not enrolled or working on the campus. Many of these non-affiliated reports have been linked to visiting students from San Jose State.

Camus crime reports noted that non-affiliates have violated drnking rules, been involved in altercations and attempted to break into the dorms.

On Oct. 5 a non-affiliate make assaulted a male resident in Swig.

"Our party scene isn't that great," said sophomore Carlie Brown. "But the guys I have met so far seem to have exhausted all their other options at the schools they go to. They come here to meet Santa Clara girls."

Brown has met multiple non-Santa Clara students, mostly males, at parties in the past weeks. She said she has never felt openly threatened, but said they were very aggressive physically and verbally as she spoke with them, making her feel uncomfortable at times.

Brown was at a closed party earlier this year in one of the Maple Lane condominiums when some males not affiliated with Santa Clara attempted to crash the party.

They left after owners Dave Rychlewski and Charlie Cafazza told them they were not welcome, but later that evening Rychlewski found that his laptop and three others in his house had been stolen.

"We don't have any concrete evidence," said Rychlewski, "But those guys were the only people I didn't know in my house that night."

Sophomore Shaunda Brown has also noticed the increased number of males coming to Santa Clara parties as well as their aggressive nature.

"People off the street have come up to me to ask where the party's at," said Brown. "I ignore them. I don't want to tell them because if I owned a house I wouldn't want people that I don't know and don't go to Santa Clara coming."

But she doesn't have a problem with non-students visiting for parties, as long as they know students here. One of her friends, that went to Santa Clara last year and now goes to community college in the area, will come to back to party with his old friends every once in awhile.

"That's ok because he's cool and knows people," she said, "But he has tried to piss off my Community Facilitator (CF) and act like he's above the rules because he doesn't go to school here and they can't do anything to him. That isn't ok."

John Zazenski, a second year CF, believes dealing with these people is the hardest part of the job, but also one of the most necessary. From his experience in Dunne last year and in Graham this year, many visitors are completely ignorant of the rules.

"A lot of people who don't go here, even if they are guests of a student, think they can do anything," said Zazenski. "Nine times out of ten they have absolutely no respect for anybody with authority here."

Zazenski hasn't seen an increase of non-students causing trouble, but he still thinks it is a major problem on campus that needs to be looked into.

As a facilitator, he has realized the hazard non-affiliates can pose. Past experiences in Campisi and Graham with males coming in and harassing female residents has made him look more closely at people he doesn't recognize. But non-residents can affect students indirectly as well.

"It is hard because it sets a bad example for kids that do go here," he said. "They see me fighting with someone, but they don't realize this is someone who doesn't go to Santa Clara so they don't know the rules."

Beltran is looking into options to eliminate this problem, but at this point he hasn't been very successful.

"It's hard to tell kids they can't have visitors,' he said, "Most of the people are law abiding guests. But it is those few that aren't that really cause problems."

In these cases campus safety usually asks the troublemaker to leave or they will call the police if necessary.