Though Syracuse University changed the name of MayFest to SU Showcase in an attempt to separate itself from the massive Euclid Avenue block party, it’s still anticipating the safety issues the holiday brings each year.

SU will host a closed meeting with university representatives, the Student Association, the Syracuse Police Department, the Department of Public Safety and neighborhood associations today at 6 p.m. at the Westcott Community Center to address safety concerns.

Larry Seivert, president of SA, said he believes this is the first time this type of meeting has been called before MayFest.

‘Having this meeting called is a really large step the university has taken to make sure that we are really looking to keep students safe, as well as identify solutions that are going to get rid of any other problems,’ he said.

SA hosted a ‘Save MayFest’ forum Feb. 12, in an attempt to preserve the university tradition. It passed a bill Feb. 16 to recognize MayFest and collaborate with administration and Syracuse residents to address ongoing concerns, especially those involving safety. Also in February, university administrators met with SA to talk about safety concerns. The two police departments, SPD and DPS, also met to discuss similar issues.

But today seems to be the first meeting to bring all those divisions together, Seivert said.

The university renamed the event SU Showcase this year, but SA continues to use the term MayFest to refer to the Euclid Avenue parties. Last year, 36 houses along Euclid Avenue hosted more than 2,500 students, and police issued no citations. The event originated in May of 2005, moved to April in 2006 and established its party reputation in 2007.

A precursor to the MayFest parties is Livingstock, a student-organized block party on Livingston Avenue that resulted in fires, riots and 28 felonies on May 1, 1999.

Harry Lewis, secretary of the South East University Neighborhood Association, said the off-campus parties have posed problems for the students and the neighborhood in past years. He plans to attend the meeting today and said he wants to find out what DPS and SPD have planned to keep the parties under control.

‘Student safety is the most important aspect of this whole thing,’ Lewis said. ‘This is the day for the university to show off its students. I’m afraid some of them have taken advantage of the holiday and gone into this MayFest partying. Now they’re calling it tradition. It’s only been in existence for a few years.’

Lewis said he also invited the Westcott East Neighborhood Association to attend the meeting, though SEUNA is the neighborhood association most directly affected by the Euclid Avenue parties.

‘It has been very rough on the area. For example, we have people who walk their dogs, and there’s so much broken glass around,’ Lewis said. ‘People’s houses have been peed on. Students, they don’t care where they go to the bathroom.’

Lewis said he remembers a landlord handing out hot dogs and hamburgers to students that day, in an attempt to combat the alcohol in their systems. And though he said students are better behaved than students were 25 years ago, Lewis drove through the neighborhood last year to record the ‘mob scene.’

‘The university is going to say, ‘It’s not our problem, it’s not on our campus.’ But it’s still Syracuse University students,’ Lewis said. ‘All we can do is do the best we can to have all our ducks in a row, in anticipation of what might happen. We have to think about student safety.’

shmelike@syr.edu

Published on March 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm