Suffolk students face class on civility

Suffolk University, which aims to dramatically expand its dormitory space on its Beacon Hill campus, is promising a new crackdown on unruly student behavior.

The university hopes that tough enforcement and new police details will ease tensions with Beacon Hill and North End residents, who have complained for years about raucous late-night parties and about vandalism, mainly in off-campus apartments.

As students arrive for the school year next week, Suffolk plans to bombard them with information in lectures, webcasts, and video messages that spell out the policies for off-campus behavior and penalties for violations.

Two Boston police details will patrol the neighborhoods on weekend nights, in efforts to respond to complaints and to identify disorderly students.

The university has also created an Office of Neighborhood Response, a campus department that will monitor off-campus incidents involving students and that will provide a round-the-clock community hotline.

``We've been listening very closely to the neighbors and to those who have made it very clear that this is an issue that needs to be addressed," said John Nucci , Suffolk's vice president of government and community affairs. ``I strongly feel that this will make it very clear to students that unacceptable off-campus behavior will not be tolerated."

The university's off-campus initiatives have been instituted amid mounting frustrations from neighborhood residents who have been calling police, complaining to city councilors, and trying to work with officials at Suffolk University to ease the problems .

It is an issue that many residents say has gotten worse over time, forcing some longtime residents to move and leaving others to endure sleepless nights.

Of Suffolk University's undergraduate population of about 3,900 students, only 765, or 19 percent, live on campus.

The university has two dormitories on Tremont and Somerset streets. It is trying to build a 31-story dormitory on Beacon Hill, which would bring about 800 more students to campus. That project has evoked fierce opposition, in part because of residents' fears of being overrun by misbehaving students.

``The late-night behavior is giving students a bad name in Boston," said City Councilor Michael P. Ross , who represents Beacon Hill, Mission Hill, and the Fenway. ``They're . . . tarnishing the names of their institutions."

In Beacon Hill, complaints range from loud noise at night and beer bottles in the streets to smashed car windows, ruined flower boxes, and students urinating on lawns.

``And if you say something to them, either you get something thrown at you or you get cursed out," said Dina Moeller , 39, who has lived on Beacon Hill for 16 years. ``It's more than kids being kids; it's a little more vicious."

In the tradition-bound North End, residents have complained about students playing music loudly and holding rooftop parties into the wee hours.

``They're basically affecting the quality of life," said Dan Passacantilli , 59, a lifelong North End resident. ``People need to be educated that this is not a community that will tolerate unruly parties," Passacantilli said.

If police or a Suffolk University staff member identifies a student as being disruptive, that student faces a warning, suspension, or expulsion from school, depending on the severity of the reported offense.

More than half of Suffolk's freshmen and sophomore students live off campus; officials say this group reportedly gives residents the most problems.

Officials also say the initiatives will make it easier to explain codes of conduct to 17- and 18-year-old students, many of whom may view the college experience as a realm relatively free of parental supervision, curfews, and house rules.

``They don't necessarily understand the boundaries," said Nancy Stoll , Suffolk's dean of students.

In the dorms, security and police staff work at a reception desk daily and staff members live in the building.

Respect for neighbors is a standard, Stoll said. But off-campus, maintaining a similar standard has been more difficult.

But police say the university's initiatives will encourage students to be on their best behavior.

``In some cases, certain kids will have more a sense of `I'm going to party and do what I want,' " said Police Captain Bernard O'Rourke of the Boston Police Department's District A-1.

``I think a few visits from a police officer is going to change their attitudes on that," O'Rourke added.

Russell Nichols can be reached at rnichols@globe.com.