Amherst, a small, rural town in Western Massachusetts hosts a wide spectrum of residents.  There are those who live here year round and have lived here for generations and then there are college students.  Some attend graduate school at one of the three colleges, UMass Amherst, Amherst College, or Hampshire College, that call Amherst home.  However most are between the ages of 18 and 22 and are undergraduates, many away from home without supervision for the first time.  In this sort of setting it is easy to see how tensions could run high.

Although many of the tensions that are experienced in Amherst are forced by students actions on the weekends, many of the tensions are completely understandable and natural.

One example of a natural tension is simply the differences of lifestyles between students and town residents.  Many, but not all, undergraduate students come into college ready to let loose and go wild.  However this isn’t exactly the case for residents, many of whom choose to reside in Amherst due to the fact that i is a relatively quiet and quaint town.  Although these differences in lifestyles don’t always clash, there are numerous neighborhoods in Amherst that are affected by student housing.  Town residents that live near Fearing street or anywhere between Southwest Residential Area and the bars in downtown Amherst can see heavy foot-traffic in their neighborhoods on any given night, however Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are the most obvious choices.  These residents can fall victim to vandalism, loud and rowdy behavior, and they may find the occasional college student urinating on their lawn.

As stated in the opening paragraph, many college students are experiencing their first time on their own without any adult supervision.  Sure there are RA’s and peer advisors, but nobody is going to hold your hand when while you drunkenly stumble through the neighborhoods surrounding Southwest in search of a party.  Although this is probably expected by residents, especially those who have been in Amherst for generations, there is a line that is crossed all too often and it causes quality of life issues for many citizens in Amherst.

Another natural cause of tensions is the age gap between students and residents.  Plain and simple, the two groups are at drastically different points in their lives.  Tuesday and Wednesday nights are big bar nights for students that can legally drink, however Wednesday and Thursday are normal work days for residents.  This means theres the chance that a resident could get woken up at two in the morning after hearing a fight, a smashed bottle, or simply drunk students talking loudly.  In these cases the behavior of the students isn’t malicious, however that doesn’t help the poor guy who lost a few hours of sleep and has to be up early for work.

These sorts of tensions are the ones that the new Student-Town Advisory Board plans to address, due to the fact that most of these issues can be resolved through communicating with one another.

On the other hand, there are many tensions where the blame can be placed completely on college students.

An obvious example of this is Blarney Blowout; UMass’ annual St. Patrick’s Day party.  A few years ago, this event was actually promoted by the bars’ however last year, the bars were forced to close for the day by town and school officials and all hell broke loose.  With no set place to go, students roamed the streets of Amherst, hoping to get a taste of Blarney.  Students started in the Brandywine and Townhouse off-campus apartment complexes but were quickly rooted out by Police officers.  This caused hundreds of students, to walk back down North Pleasant towards campus.  Students overflowed off of the sidewalks into the streets making it difficult for everyday traffic to go to and from campus.  The herd of students eventually made it to a house on the corner of North Pleasant and Fearing St. where the police and students held their final skirmish.  The day was a disaster that ended in over 70 arrests, a vast majority of which were students visiting from other colleges.  This year however, police and school officials did a better job at containing the chaos.

Some other examples that hit home a bit harder for Amherst residents are the vandalism of Puffer’s Pond and the Emily Dickinson homestead.

“There was an incident maybe two or three years ago where everyone flocked to Puffer’s Pond, took over the beach on a Sunday afternoon, and they left this huge mess,” said longtime Amherst resident Larry Kelley.  “That pissed off a lot of people because Puffer’s Pond is like the crown jewel of the Amherst conservation department.”

“Occasionally kids will get arrested for publicly urinating on Emily Dickinson’s fence and Emily Dickinson is a revered icon of Amherst, so you don’t show disrespect to the Dickinson homestead,” Kelley said.  “And you can just excuse it and say “Oh, he was drunk,” but we (Amherst residents) don’t like that excuse.”

For Amherst residents, these are landmarks and part of the town’s history.  It’s one thing to party and be rowdy, however to the residents here messing with their landmarks and the things that make Amherst, Amherst, is taking it too far.

Scott Livingstone, chief of police for the Amherst police department, has been in Amherst for 30 years and has seen his fair share of tension-causing events.

The first event dates back to 1986 when the Mets and Red Sox squared off in the World Series.

“The year that the Red Sox and Mets played in the World Series was really troublesome down in Southwest where there were riots and a lot of injuries and a lot of damage done,” Livingstone said.  “It kind of got the ball rolling on the riot mentality and it found it’s way off campus.”

Although he said this particular riot sort of started the “riot mentality,” he cited Hobart Lane in the early 2000’s as a low point for student’s behavior.

“I hate to characterize parties as riots but these were full out riots,” Livingstone said. “There was a lot of vandalism, a lot of arrests, intoxication, a lot of fisticuffs, fighting, stabbings, we had it all and it had really gotten out of hand.”

Since those days, both Livingstone and Kelley have said that the relationship between the town and the students has gotten better and still is getting better.  Livingstone stated that to date there have been less complaints filed, less arrests and less citations written.  Kelley cited this years handling of the Blarney Blowout as a step in the right direction, but both men hope this relationship continues to grow and improve and the new Student-Town Advisory Board was created to do just that.