Violence and theft pose dangers for partiers

By Emily Entress

On a typical weekend night at Santa Clara the off-campus houses are teeming with students looking to have a good time. However, with a recent string of violence in the area surrounding the University, it might be time for the students throwing the parties to reconsider who they let into their houses.

"It's tricky to host a party and monitor the people who are coming and going all night," admitted Owen Watson, a senior at Santa Clara who has lived in the Alviso apartments for two years.

"It's totally necessary. There are lots of sketchy people roaming the streets among the students, and no one wants to have possibly dangerous or violent people randomly in their house," he said.

In fact, violence at off-campus housing has been a huge problem this past year, both in the form of physical attacks and thefts.

A record number of cars and houses have been broken into this fall in the neighborhoods directly surrounding campus. iPods, GPS, laptops and the like have been the main target of these break-ins;

One brave criminal even stole a car off of a student at one of the off-campus houses.

"We definitely get targeted because people know this is a neighborhood of college students," said Peter Fritz, a senior at Santa Clara who was recently attacked during a party held at his friends' house, Bermuda on Bellomy St.

On October 9, he was standing in the driveway at Bermuda next to his friends James Evans and John Bradley, who told people to clear off their lawn. Four "thug-like" guys approached them, unprovoked, and attacked the boys.

Evans was hit and thrown into a garbage can, Bradley was hit in the head with a bottle and Fritz was knocked out and taken to the hospital from a few serious blows to the head. The attackers left the party and continued to show aggressive behaviors at the other parties they visited that night.

One common theme in the recent thread of violence during parties is that it seems to come from people who are not Santa Clara students.

"This year, it seems like everywhere you go you see people that don't seem to fit in, that clearly don't go here," said Fritz.

"They come up to you and say they know you from class but they can't tell you what class, or where they live; they are clearly just coming for our parties. And when you don't let them in, they can get really aggressive," he said.

So what are students doing to protect their houses?

"Each of us pays attention to who comes into the house and if we don't recognize them, we just ask who they are," said Annie Cheung, a junior Santa Clara student who lives on Bellomy St.

"If no one in the house knows them or they don't know anyone, we pretty much demand that they leave," he said.

This method of casually monitoring guests at parties seems to be the most popular way to keep random people out. Some houses try to keep their doors locked and only open them for friends, but even that gets confusing.

"People will try anything to get into parties," said Watson. "We always lock our front door, but people get their friends to open it form the inside or they jump the fence and enter through the back door."

Most students having a party want to hang out with their friends, not stand at the door and regulate the crowd. Plus, it could possibly put the host in danger of violent retalation.

"Even when you do confront someone, there's a chance they will be aggressive and start a fight, so you are putting yourself in danger as well," said Fritz.

Despite the possible danger, it seems necessary for houses throwing parties to take some precautionary measures to protect the guests and the hosts.

Contact Emily Entress at eentress@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.