Burlington residents attended an SGA meeting to discuss issues with alcohol, noise, vandalism and littering. The majority of the residents have been living in Burlington for at least 10 years and said that the problems are continuing to get worse.

The residents attended the Student Government Association meeting Sept. 29. Junior Vice President Tyler Davis invited the community members to express concerns they had regarding student residents.

Davis has been developing plans to decrease the tension between students and permanent residents for over a year, as well as attending the local neighborhood planning assemblies.  

He thought that this was a good step because community members had never previously been invited to a SGA meeting. “A lot of them just appreciated the fact that they were invited,” Davis said.

One woman described an incident where someone jumped on top of cars on her street.. The roof of her car caved in, the windshield was smashed and her insurance increased.

Now she avoids parking on the street in fear that this could happen again. She believes that this occurred because of an intoxicated student.

 Bill Church, one of the residents who spoke at the meeting, said that because college students are only living in the neighborhoods for a year, it makes it difficult for permanent residents to get to know them.  

He also said that another factor preventing friendly relationships from being established is that students keep different hours.  

Debra Roseman, also a community member, said the main issue is the consumption of alcohol and how it makes students act.

When students were moving in, Roseman  introduced herself and said she would confront them if a problem arose before calling the police. However, it has gotten to a point where calling the police is the only option, she said.

“I don’t like calling the police, but that’s what I do,” Roseman said.

SGA senators expressed their appreciation of the residents attending the meeting and shared suggestions about how to resolve the tension and improve the student-community relationship..

“After the meeting I had people from just about every committee telling me that they wanted to do work more at this,” Davis said. “Even as a college student you sympathize with the fact that you’re woken up at three in the morning and there’s nothing you can do about it.”