S. L. FULLER
News Editor
Dialogue has started up once again about the future of Fred Fest with the small open forum last Tuesday in Jewett Hall room 101. This forum was not very publicized, so not many people knew it was happening.
All everyone’s asking is for a little respect. Just a little bit. From the administrators, to Spectrum Entertainment Board, to local landlords, to police chiefs, to students, to the mayor — everyone wants respect. And in recent years, many have felt disrespected when it comes to Fred Fest.
This disrespect, however, is felt for a variety of reasons. Some students don’t feel like their opinions on the matter are being taken seriously, while some students feel like their right to be an independent adult has come under fire. Community members feel that their property and residence is being disrespected and the police feel like their authority has been disrespected.
But if everyone can agree on one thing, it’s that something has to give.
Fredonia mayor Stephen Keefe was one of 15 people in attendance at Tuesday’s forum. A regular at these forums, Keefe feels the Village of Fredonia and the university must collaborate to solve this issue.
“The college and the community are very closely joined by proximity, and everything else, and I think we need to work closely together,” said Keefe. “I think we need to make an environment that’s conducive to students’ lives. So many positive things come out of having a college in our community. And by far, there’s a whole lot more positive that comes out of it than anything negative.”
Two of Spectrum’s executive board members attended as well: Stephanie Willis, junior public relations major, and Anna Jones, senior childhood inclusive education major. They came to the forum to make sure people were respectful of their on-campus Fred Fest event and to answer any questions.
“We definitely actively pursue making sure the conversation isn’t about our on-campus event because that’s not the problem right now,” said Willis before the forum began. “But we wanted to be here also to make sure if something came up that was centered around what we do, that we can answer it properly and no one else is falsifying information.”
“I think the line is very blurred between on-campus Fred Fest and off-campus Fred Fest,” added Jones. “It’s difficult for our e-board to address these kinds of problems because personally, we all want to fix downtown … but as a college club, there’s not much we can do about it. Our main focus is working with administration at this point in trying to better the on-campus Fred Fest … to make it the safest and happiest and use our budget and use our student activities fund.”
Unlike the last, massively-attended Fred Fest forum which took place last semester, the conversation at this forum was specifically geared toward the off-campus aspect and ways to prevent chaos and injury. Chief of Fredonia Police Brad Meyers was eager to hear what everyone had to say and was optimistic that this forum would give him some ideas on ways to improve the issues.
“I think that no one wants to see [Fred Fest] cast in a poor light, no one wants to see property damage and more than anything, no one wants to see people hurt or injured or even killed,” said Meyers before the forum began. “Maybe I’ll come out of [this forum] with 10 or 15 bullet points that we can address individually and extrapolate on to make change.”
Some suggestions given by audience members included working with landlords to set stricter policies about their tenants throwing massive house parties, working with Fredonia Central School to help keep high school students out of the village that night, finding a better way to get suggestions from all the students on campus, using media to promote safe behavior and changing the name.
The only issue with these suggestions is that most of them have been attempted before. The university has tried to work with landlords but to little or no avail. The university has also tried to work with the Fredonia Central School in the past, but there’s the question: how much jurisdiction does the school have on its students after the school day ends? Last semester, students did have the opportunity to voice their opinions, but the mechanism didn’t allow for total efficiency. While no next step was decided upon at the forum, everyone agreed that open dialogue can only bring about good things.
“We have a vested interest not only on campus but off, [and] we’re just very interested in the whole topic and what students and community members have to say,” said Chief of University Police Ann Burns. “[Open forum] is a good way to have a good conversation.”
While the forum did not establish a clear action plan for the future, it laid the foundation for communication between the students, administration and community members that will be utilized when taking action in the future.
“All we’re looking for in the community is on certain dates there be a little bit more respect shown,” said Keefe. “If we had [students’] respect, everything would just be golden.”