Students, fraternities and landlords prepare for Saturday’s festivities

Students, fraternities and landlords prepare for Saturday’s festivities

As Saturday approaches, residents on College Avenue prepare for College Fest, an end of the year block party. The event escalated last year, leading to a significant amount of damage to properties in the area and around 50 arrests.

“A lot of stuff got either broken or stolen from this house last year, we don’t have a shower door because of that,” said Brian Havran, junior computer science major and resident of the College Avenue. “A side door was kicked in, windows were broken, (so) pretty much this entire house was ruined last year.”

Havran and his roommate, junior Russian and history major, Chris Collins were not residents last year but did attend the event. Havran and Collins feel that after what happened last year, they would be surprised if the event even took place this weekend.

“I figure the cops are probably going to be out here patrolling before people even start drinking just to avoid any huge groups like there was last time,” Collins said. “That got out of hand pretty quick. There were just a lot of people.”

College Avenue residents Laura Adams, junior sociology major, and Ashley Gerber, junior fashion design major, are in agreement that police departments from outside of Kent will probably play a larger role this year on the street.

Since they live toward the top of College Avenue, Adams feels that their house will be safe from significant amounts of damage.

“I’m just worried that the police are going to be a lot more strict, and that the kids are going to act out more,” Adams said.

“I think it can go either way,” Gerber said. “Either kids will want to one up last year, or they’ll be too scared to do too much partying and keep it contained to the yards.”

Jade Tyszka, sophomore advertising major, is a little more worried about the safety of her home since she is located right in the middle of the street.

“There’s going to be a lot of kids we don’t know (coming in our house),” Tyszka said. “We won’t know who they are and we won’t be able to keep an eye on everyone.”

Beth Myszka, 46, owns several homes on College that she rents out to students. She explained that the only repercussion from that day was a stronger police presence on the street during the weeks that followed, leading to several violations on the homes. All fines for violations that are sent to owners are passed on to tenants.

“Last year was unfortunate that a few people put a bad light on the situation,” Myszka said. “I feel that the media ran with it making more out of what really occurred.”

Not all residents of College Avenue will be taking part in the event this year. Both Tau Kappa Epsilon and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternities will be participating in Relay for Life instead, which always falls on the same day.

Seth Treanor, junior visual communication and design major and member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, feels that both students and police will be more cautious this year.

Treanor and other members of his fraternity will be at Relay for Life supporting, Eric Cunningham or “Sticks,” as they refer to him as.

“One of our brothers, Sticks, has cerebral palsy and is going to be pushing his wheelchair, 24-hours, around the track,” Treanor said. “Our main focus is to be there, supporting him and helping out the cause.”

Benjamin Spott, senior biotechnology major and member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, feels that this year will not get out of control like last year due to increased police presence. He explained that during the riots that took place last year, they offered refuge to a reporter from a local paper in their home so she could avoid the rubber bullets and tear gas that police dispersed.

“We don’t participate in College Fest, we’re very against it, actually, and we support Relay for Life, which only happens once a year,” Spott said. “You can drink any day of the year, but there’s only one day of the year to support cancer research at Kent State and that’s Relay for Life.”

Contact student life reporter

Lauren Vogel at [email protected].