Volume CXXXII, Number 20 April 11, 2003 f

New noise control signs placed around campus
JENNIE COHEN
STAFF WRITER

The new sign behind Coles Tower. (Hans Law, Bowdoin Orient)

The Brunswick Police Department has recently taken action against the increased number of noise complaints that have arisen throughout the course of 2002-2003 academic year.

Following through with their previous plan, the police have now installed signs near the Bowdoin campus that will serve as an official warning to students that public drinking is a Class E crime that is punishable by a fine or possible jail time. If students are caught consuming alcohol within 200 feet of the signs, they can be arrested.

The new signs are located in the following locations around campus: two on Harpswell Street, two on Garrison Street, one on the corner of Chamberlain and Hawthorne Street, and three at the intersection of Longfellow and Coffin Street-all considered to be highly trafficked areas during weekends.

Lieutenant Marc Hagen of the Brunswick Police Department reported that they, "put the signs up while you guys were on spring break." When asked about any changes in the frequency of neighborhood complaints, he responded that there has been "nothing noticeable yet."

"We're still getting calls," he said, "but no more or less then we did before the signs." Hagen reasoned that the recent unseasonably cold and snowy weather might have kept some students from going outside or curbed some potential rowdiness during the weekends.

Jon Crowell '05 feels that the new signs will do little to deter the current trend of student rowdiness. "I think that college students inherently tend to bend the rules and if the police put up signs, then I think that they'll see an increase in problems in spite of the signs."

Hagen went on to say that the police have not stepped up their patrol around the signs in hopes that "they will be enough for us not to need specialized enforcement in the area."

He also revealed that one of the Harpswell Street signs has already been stolen.

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