Judge warns students to behave

District Judge Nancy R. Dusek-Gomez was sick of seeing college students in her Hadley courtroom, where she has jurisdiction over about 30,000 undergraduates at five schools near Amherst.

She was sick of underage drinking, and tired of drunken assaults and drunken driving.

This school year, Dusek-Gomez tried something different, putting on her meanest face as she posed for a photo that appeared in a full-page ad in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian school newspaper yesterday under the headline: ``Welcome back students . . . I hope we never meet."

``When I meet you and your classmates, it's often one of the worst days of your lives," the ad reads. ``That's because I'm the First Justice of the Eastern Hampshire District Court, and we're probably seeing each other in my courtroom on Route 9 in Hadley . . . just a short trip from campus, but a seemingly endless ride when you're in the back seat of a police cruiser."

The idea, said officials from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who paid $2,211 for the ad to run yesterday and again tomorrow, was to give students a tangible reminder of consequences if they break the law. The ad tells students that drug convictions can jeopardize federal financial aid; that urinating in public is a form of indecent exposure and a cause for arrest; and that altering a driver's license is a felony.

``Through this, no one will ever be able to say, `I did not know what the expectations were,' " said Michael Gargano , vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life, who worked with the judge to create the ad.

A copy of the ad will also be sent via e-mail to the parents of all students.

Last weekend, Amherst police arrested 56 people on Friday and Saturday night. Most of the arrests were alcohol-related, according to Police Captain Michael Kent.

The judge laughed yesterday about trying to look stern for the camera, but said she took the effort seriously.

``I'm hoping that they will want to avoid seeing my face," Dusek-Gomez said. ``Either that, or they will cut out my face and put it in the bull's eye on a dartboard."