Minutes were taken by Greta Mosley of the 19WCA. Minutes were to be posted on the old 19wca.org after approval but there were problems with the website and the Association is slowly repopulating their new website at the same URL.  I'm posting them here for your convenience.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Public Safety Meeting – 19^th Ward

Location: Rochester Presbyterian Home ----Time: 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

256 Thurston Rd

Rochester, NY 14619

(585) 235-9100

Minutes:

Moderator-John Borek, Neighborhood Service Center Officer- Carl Dickerson, Andy DiMaria, Special Guests, Laurel F. Contomanolis, Executive Director, Office for Residential Life and Housing Service at the University of Rochester , Captain Tony Mc Mullen of SW Quadrant.

Attendance-14 neighborhood citizens

Introductions:

Moderator-John Borek introduced Mark Fisher, U of R Public Safety Director, Laurel F. Contomanolis, Executive Director, Office of Residential Life and Housing Service at the University of Rochester and Captain Tony Mc Mullen of the Rochester Police Department. Members of the PLEX organization also attended this session.

John Borek: We will focus initially on student housing in our 19^th Ward Community and the concerns you have about housing in our community and the connection that the U of R has with our community.

Laurel Contomanolis: My purview is the undergraduate, graduate housing and off campus housing. We are now experiencing more students that want to live off campus. In particular, we have seen a build up of undergraduate students that desire off campus housing especially in the 19^th Ward area. This is primarily due to the proximity to the U of R campus. The students are looking to become more independent and they realize that living off campus is less costly. Living off campus allows students to save a great deal of money. The University of Rochester’s room and board is $52,000 for on campus housing a year. Some students get aid but most get loans to make up the difference. About 20% of our students live off campus in non U of R housing. The majority of these students are classified as juniors and seniors. However, because of the housing crunch on campus more second year students, sophomores are requesting to live off campus. This has been the trend for the last couple of years. Our contract is to have students remain on campus their first and second year of college. We have a lot of students wishing to live on campus so should the sophomore students make a request to live off campus, we have allowed it to relieve the pressure. The majority of those students are ready and most of those students are good citizens. We are aware that there are some that are not. We have put some things in place to work through some of those issues in a proactive manner. Our Neighborhood Ambassador Program is for mostly undergraduate students. We want to hold students accountable when they live in a residential community to introduce themselves to all of the neighbors on the street and be a good neighbor. The students are given guidelines on how to “Party Smart” a resource guide for them to pattern their behavior that is responsible. As we get reports that our students are being noisy, or rowdy, the students are asked to come in and talk about what happened and how to stave off this kind of problem in the future. We want them to understand that they must be respectful. There is not much recidivism. The students understand what they are to do while in a residential neighborhood after speaking with us. Our Public Safety Department will also investigate the matter and if it is found that the incident was not caused by one of the U of R students we will report that to the college. Should it be discovered that the issue was caused by a Monroe Community College or Rochester Institute of Technology student those colleges will be notified of the situation. We have a responsibility to educate our students to be good citizens.

U of R Code of Conduct – The university wants the students to be aware of our code of conduct and be good citizens and respectful to their neighbors. The code of conduct follows the students wherever they are living. When there are situations that arise that need the police, the police will be called.

Resident: You mentioned earlier about the high cost of room and board for students. Do you find that most of the students are now coming to the U of R are from other countries? Should this be true, what is the demographic of those students?

Laurel Contomanolis: For the past few years we have seen a large increase in the number of students from China. Also, we try to diversify our efforts of international students for the last few years a little bit more. The numbers of students from China is down some but they are still the largest group of students that come to us internationally. We have students that come to us from throughout Europe, from Southeast Asia, India. We have international students, students of people of color, Caucasian students.

We hope these students will interact and broaden their understanding of one another.

Question PLEX Resident: We have ambassadors in the PLEX neighborhood, but we are not seeing much of them lately. So there is very little communication between us and the ambassadors. Are we not seeing those because of they are taking a heavy course load? Please explain.

Contomanolis: The ambassadors are out there and each year we beef up what we want them to participate in each. We may assign them to attend a 19^th Ward Association meeting/committee, PLEX meeting. But as you are aware there is a gap during the holidays in December and January. So that slows down our progress. We are trying to put the connections together. Our coordinator that would be in charge of connecting the organizations with the students is out on sick leave. As a result, some of the things we may have been pushing are in a stabilization mode as we try to hold our operation in a functioning mode. Our focus for next year will be to push those things early on in September and monitor their progress. Ambassadors are first assigned by where they live to become an ambassador.

Question PLEX Resident: Can we reach out and ask those students that may live in our area to participate in our organizations?

Contomanolis: Please feel free to reach out to the students that live in your neighborhood and invite them to your meetings as well. There is no reason why you cannot reach out to the neighborhood ambassador to come to your meeting or the students that live in the nearby football house.

Next Speaker: Mark Fischer Director of Public Safety at the University of Rochester-with the University of Rochester for 3.5 years. Prior to this position, I was a state policeman for 28 years. The Public Safety Department is comprised of 50 Peace Officers and 75 Security Officers. Our Peace Officers have the same powers as Police Officers as long as they are on University of Rochester property. The Peace Officers are armed with batons, pepper spray and the Security Officers carry gel. Our focus is being proactive. When I first arrived at the university, 3 years ago there had been numerous robberies. So, I immediately put more officers in the affected areas to ward off the robberies. More police cars were also in those affected areas to ward off the crime. As you are probably aware students will walk around with their cell phones, IPad etc., visible as they stroll down the streets this invites problems. We send out communication to alert them to safeguard these items but they do not always listen to the safety tips.

Also, we try to change the perception of what has occurred. Parents will call the office when they have heard about an incident that occurred and indicate that the crime rate is high across the river from campus. But we assure them that in reality this is not true. The crime rate is low across the river. The Rochester Police Department can verify that and do a phenomenal job policing that area.

We also work pretty hard with the police department to keep an eye on our students when they have parties in the residential neighborhoods. We have worked on Dandelion Day (last Friday in April when students party as a celebration of student life “Drinking Holiday”) to make sure that student behavior is kept in check so as not to create problems in the neighborhood. Students cannot drink on campus. We have a two (2) person community detail that we run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. These officers talk to students to find out where the parties are and if there are going to be any problems or issues so that we can stop them before they begin. Should we see them engaging in bad behavior we talk to them about the behavior to end it. When this behavior warrants police involvement, we contact the police. In my opinion the area in which our students live is very safe. We are working very hard to stave off problems and get a lot of assistance from the police department. As we run these details, student behavior is getting better.

Resident: I understand that the students get Safety Alerts about the crime that may be occurring in our area and this simply intensifies the student’s fears about our Southwest neighborhood. Please speak to this issue.

Mark Fisher: We are mandated by Federal Law, to notify our students when there is a crime or security issue committed either on our property or adjacent to our property. We also report to about 25,000 students a status update when the crime is solved or not with specific facts. Typically, in a year we will have five (5) to (6) notices that have been sent to students. Other universities, such as Cincinnati have weekly notices.

Resident: We also realize that a lot of U of R students spend a considerable amount of time in the Park Avenue, Meigs Street, East Avenue area (the East End). However, there are never any notices sent out when crimes occur against students. This seems unfair. It appears that this (Southwest) neighborhood is being demonized because of its proximity to the U of R. I understand the restrictions that are placed on the university in terms of the reporting. Reporting of the East End’s crime issues would seem to be fair.

Contomanolis: Should we find that a person at our university may be making disparaging comments about a particular part of town and discouraging students to visit or move there and we the name of that person, we will talk to them and talk up this area. Letting them know that they may not know all there is to know about the southwest. Students are comfortable with being in the Southwest.

Resident: I often see female students on the bike and jogging trail alone or in the Mt Hope Cemetery. Are there any alerts sent to students to warn them of the safety risks.

Fisher: We send notices out to advise the students of the dangers of being in secluded places alone during the day and especially at night. We let them know they should walk, exercise and run together.

Contomanolis: We talk to them about urban smarts, travel in groups, know where you are, be aware of your surroundings, know how to get back to campus, don’t use cell phone while walking it limits your options for safety.

Resident: I have a friend that wanted to list her single family house with the U of R for rent but was unable to do so initially because there was not a C of O (Certificate of Occupancy). When it was completed my friend was able to list her property. I just wanted to commend the University for having that service.

Contomanolis: The website address for listing housing is www.rochester.edu/reslife/offcampus/#

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John Borek: U of R Community Project will begin again. The will place 6-8 graduate students will help with any community project for 5 hours a week for 9 weeks. Should you have any projects please let us know. Please contact John Borek directly at johnborek@yahoo.com

Public Safety Meeting will be May 27, 2015, 6:30p.m.-7:00 p.m. topic Police Reorganization at the Rochester Presbyterian Home.

Resident: Why are dead bodies left at a crime scene for a very long time with the police tape in place?

McMullen: We have to get the technicians there to do their report and we have to wait for the medical examiner to examine the body and take pictures.