Now, none of you can say you went to JMU solely based on the great education it offers because then you would be lying. Yes we have the top business and nursing schools in the country, but we are also one of the top party schools in the country. Seeing JMU being featured on social media sites for its massive day drinks and infamous frog week festivities would make any freshman want to come to JMU. But I'm fearful with the passing of the 24 hour noise ordinance proposed by the Harrisonburg community and Rockingham County, that our reputation of a party school will soon become obsolete.
Yes if someone was raging face at 11am while I was asleep, I would be pissed too, but Harrisonburg and Rockingham county have to remember that JMU put them on the map and this community is known as a college town. Residents of the area should keep that in mind before planning to live on Devon Lane or Forest Hills Dr. These two places are known for the majority of our parties; ask any Uber driver, student or even faculty. But the traditions of large gatherings in the day time are what JMU students live for.
The noise ordinance was proposed during the summer and passed unanimously on August 23rd. The law applies to outdoor gatherings of 10 or more people and a permit is required for gatherings of 100 or more people when sound amplifying equipment is being used. This permit has to be approved 15 days in advanced by the city. The noise level should be kept below 65 decibels. A vacuum cleaner is 70 decibels. A vacuum cleaner.
So does that mean when our sorority chants during recruitment we will get fined? Will everyone screaming at the football game get fined? No. Only off campus Greek life gets penalized. I understand that we do get rowdy to the point where it could seem out of hand and potential damage to the area, but you don't just tell a smoker to quit smoking. They go to meetings, wear nicotine patches or use an alternative method. It's about a gradual process for someone to quit something that they were once told was OK. The community is asking us to quit cold turkey.
As the weeks go on, it feels that the residents of Harrisonburg and the police are just out for blood. I understand the cops are required to follow this law, but some of them are going about it the wrong way. Instead of handing out underage possession charges like its candy, there needs to be a relationship between the police and the owners of house where the party is taking place or with the president of the fraternity hosting the party. We would then be willing to cooperate more and have a better respect for authority. Because when police officers get power hungry and like to aggressively enforce this law, we will resist even harder.
We now plan to be the first ones to any party to maximize our time there because we know it will be shut down within the hour. Police officers are coming in and giving us 30 seconds to get out before fining already broke college students thousands of dollars. I also saw a cop pull over to a large pack of freshman walking down south main and stopping to hand out chargers. Shouldn't you be glad they are walking in packs and not alone? They're poor freshman that don't know any better.
I'm not saying a college town is an exception to the law, but there should be some leniency with the large amount of partying. What about Ole Miss? Penn State? Miami University? Schools with 40,000 or more people and even larger parties haven't let a community that knows they are a college town suddenly shut their entire culture down because they decided to live there.
OK I'll compromise here and say have cops out on Friday and Saturday nights to make sure they are doing important things like making sure no one is sexually assaulted on their walk home. (That's a story for another time). Not worrying about how loud we are. But instead we have 6 bike cops patrolling in circles around manor and forest on a Wednesday night. Didn't you remember your college experience residents of the JMU community? Didn't you want a stress relief? Didn't you want to have fun with your friends and make memories that you won't remember? Work with us here.
We heard you Harrisonburg. Loud and clear. But we aren't going to let you ruin a tradition we worked so hard to maintain, so don't be surprised when we come back with a vengeance. Whether we make tailgating a super sized day drink with even more people or riot. Who knows.
In the mean time we will keep doing what we do best.
