UW wants to clamp down on students' off-campus acts

Rowdy students living on Greek Row and in the surrounding neighborhood would face a new three-strikes rule under a proposed expansion of the University of Washington's authority.

In the past, most off-campus behavior has fallen outside the UW's jurisdiction. But university officials, responding to a recent spate of violence and to longtime community concern over disorderliness, are proposing a two-year pilot program under which they would keep files on students who misbehave.

Students who receive a citation from either campus or Seattle police would get a warning letter from the UW. A second citation could require the student to attend mediation with an accuser. A third police citation — or failure to attend mediation — would allow the UW to initiate disciplinary action up to expulsion.

Students accused of breaking the law would still be subject to any legal action brought by police or prosecutors.

The proposed rule changes would affect some 6,000 students who live in the neighborhood north of campus. To grant itself new powers, the UW needs to first gain approval from the Faculty Senate and Board of Regents and make changes to the Washington Administrative Code — a process that is expected to take at least six months.

UW officials won a key victory in January when the UW student body voted in favor of such changes, after resisting them in previous years. The vote came after some state lawmakers threatened to impose new rules unless the UW began policing students more vigorously.

Eric Godfrey, the UW's vice provost for student life, said the new rules are part of a broader strategy to improve relations in the neighborhood. UW and Seattle police have already adopted a zero-tolerance stance with students over recent months, Godfrey said, and the university is attempting to work more closely with landlords.

In its draft proposal, the UW says behavior subject to penalties includes noise violations, public lewdness, theft, littering, trespassing and destroying property. The UW says it would create an office to run the pilot program. Records of misbehavior would be kept separate from academic records.

The UW has proposed a tight geographic boundary for enforcement of the behavior rules: Northeast 45th Street to the south; 15th Avenue Northeast to the west; 22nd Avenue Northeast to the east; and Northeast Ravenna Boulevard to the north.

"I think it's going to help," Godfrey said. "We couldn't have proceeded without student support."

But some residents worry that savvy students will be able to skirt the rules and avoid getting into serious trouble with the university.

Kent Wills, a board member of the University Park Community Club, said he has lived in the neighborhood 12 years and has put up with all-night partying, fights, drag racing and the destruction of his porch planter box.

Wills said he worries that students who live together in large groups will avoid getting multiple citations simply by having a different person answer the door each time the police come knocking.

"I don't want to be too negative. We've got to give it a chance," Wills said. "But students are too smart, and they'll learn the nuances and everything. Once they get one complaint, they won't be so stupid as to answer the door."

Godfrey responded that the pilot program would help identify ways the rules could be improved over time.

Student-body President Cullen White said students thought any rule changes should emphasize education and mediation rather than punishment.

"Students have a strong feeling that this should be an educational institution rather than a punitive one," White said.

Meanwhile, UW officials are proposing a second measure that would allow them to impose academic sanctions on students who are convicted of certain serious crimes — no matter where the crimes take place. Those crimes are physical abuse, sexual abuse, harassment, stalking, hazing and possession or manufacture of explosives.

"UW students should be held accountable for certain off-campus conduct that affects the university's relationship with the community or poses a threat to the health, safety and security of any member(s) of the university community," reads the draft proposal.

The proposal also draws attention to one rule already on the books: The UW president has "emergency authority" to suspend any student who poses an imminent threat to anyone at the university.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com