We're All in this Together:

A Leap Towards the Right Direction

By Belema Oriaku, Michel Franklin, Kate Sine, Tamik Bess
Photo by Ashye Proctor

Frostburg has had an interesting year. Locals have been keeping an eye out on the growing population of the school and the community. With the school, and local homes being so close in range it is important to keep peace between the students and the locals.  In an article written by Heather Wolford, locals express their concerns with the students. The article begins, “Mary Distel moved to Frostburg from Baltimore to get away from crime.” She expressed how she is now scared to sit outside and even 
considered moving. She repeats, “I moved up from Baltimore to get away from this. What exactly is this? Crime? Fighting? Noise? Maybe something else? Heres the Cumberland Times article so you can interpret what "this" for yourself, Last Straw for Frostburg Resident.

            Frostburg City Police Chief Royce Douty enters the conversation by commenting, “I’m back working 12 hour shifts starting today. I think (the students) are getting worse.” The article mentions the violence and robberies that has taken place in the school and the community. But they fail to mention any positives about the school or the students, or ways to improve these "issues."

            The article also fails to mention that the recent burglaries were committed by Zachary Alan Griffifth, a 41-year old local. Heres the article, Frostburg Burglary. But before getting into logistics, this article is not to divide the community and the students, but quite the opposite. Residents have expressed their concerns of keeping the community safe. Students also have the same concerns, considering this is their home for nine months out of the year.

            Locals claim that Frostburg is lowering their standards. The president of Frostburg State, Thomas Bowling, voiced his opinion in a letter sent to all the faculty, staff, and students of Frostburg State University. He voiced, “I want to be very clear: FSU has not “lowered its standards.” We have raised them, and the credentials of our entering students reflect that. In 2006, FSU’s admit rate – the percentage of those freshmen who are admitted compared to the percentage who applied – was 76 percent. In fall of 2015, we admitted only 63 percent. And while still preliminary, the credentials of students planning to attend in fall 2016 appear very promising, with SATs and GPAs that outshine those of the past several years.”

            Although the Frostburg president assures the community that Frostburg is not lowering its standards, some officers are not 100% sure on his statement. Officer Jason McCumber, who has been working at Frostburg State University for over twelve years included his knowledge on the issues the community and the school face today.  When asked if the school has lowered its standards, “no comment” was his only response. It was intriguing that a Frostburg police officer was not more defensive for school he works for. It is noted that he is also a local. 

He admits that there is a division between locals and student to some degree. When asked about if there is tension between the locals and the college students, he explained, “to some degree yes, based on things I have seen on social media." When asked on what he has seen on social media he elaborated, “nothing that stands out but the locals are upset about the littering on the streets, beer cans…that kind of stuff. They are upset about the recent fights and disturbances that we had in the past couple years.”

To bridge the gap, he suggests that, “everyone once in a while they have clean ups with the locals and the students, but I haven’t seen that in a while.” In that moment I had to remind him that  cleans do still occur. He then went on to reveal that he has seen some student take it upon themselves to clean the community. He explained, “I’ll see them out there cleaning up the trash, and their yard, stuff like that. But the ones where the students and the community clean together which I have seen, just not recently. It gives the students the understanding that they are a part of the community.”

Making students feel like they are a part of the community is an important factor that will bring locals and student together. Students come to college to delve into the full college experience. Part of that experience is studying, joining clubs and organizations,  and of course partying. Officer McCumber notices that noise complaints/violations increase as the temperature increases. The better the weather, the more likely the parties. When asked about the number of noise complaints a weekend he admitted, “we could get 0, we could get 25.”

When asked about the stigmas that African American parties get shut down more often than other parties, he flat right denied the statement. He added, “If we see a live party we try to get is closed down before anything happens, It doesn’t matter if its black or white.” There is no set protocol. The police officers see a party where they believe is getting out of hand or there is too many people drinking or loud music. They first try to contact the people who live there. Hey inform the resident that it would be in their best interest to shut it down before something happens. Student usually comply with the warning. He admits that asking the students to shut down parties have, “been pretty successful.”

Frostburg State University is known as a ‘party school’ and what do good parties need? Liquor. And lots of it. A good supplier of the festivities necessities is Broadway Liquors on South Broadway. I spoke to one of the workers who did not wish to be named in this report about some of the concerns regarding a feud between college kids and locals.

        “Yeah, the profits go up a few notches when I assume Frostburg starts up again.” He says behind the counter. A middle aged man comes in wearing a Redskins hat and is instantly asked by the worker to remove the cap. It’s not because the employee despises the ‘Skins. He looks to me with a shrug, “People are crafty these days.”

Right when you walk into the liquor store, there a pictures of past shoplifters or kids caught with fake IDs. “I do not think that it’s just locals who commit crimes. It’s an even mix. In a place like Frostburg, with low income families and kids who are out on their own for the first time in their lives, things are bound to happen.” He pauses when an older woman comes around the corner with a six pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. The man checks her out in a blink of an eye and asks for and ID playfully. The woman laughs and jokes that she hasn’t been carded since the twenties before scuttling off with her lemonade.                     

When asked about the man who committed the robberies, the man shakes his head. “It’s sad how desperate people are. I feel for the knife robbery as well, that must have been horrifying for the victims.” He cleans off the counter to avoid eye contact.

“It is worse this year, it has honestly never been like this, absolutely crazy. And like I said before, I do not know if it’s a student who is doing it or a local. Both sides can have things stacked against them.”

Photo by Ashye Proctor

Students have spoken up about the divide. Many of the students we interviewed agreed that they don’t have any or many friends that were locals. They admitted that they could feel some type of divide, and each entity stays to themselves.  April Mkinyua, an RA for Gray Residential hall, who is also a member of SGA had a lot of insightful comments in the topic. 

“Honesty yeah [there is a divide between the locals and the student]. But I will also say I have friend who are locals, who commute. They feel bad that locals get bad rap that ‘oh we don’t like the student or we don’t like most African American student', stuff like that. They don’t feel like that. Because they are students who go here. They take the same classes as us. But in general with the adults, I do feel like there is a divide. It’s always the campus community verses the local community. Even the mayor, his comments don’t help all the time. Cumberland Times News, what they portray about students, doesn’t always help either.”

Sometimes there tends to be a fair bit of tension between the college students and the locals. I got the opportunity to speak with one of the students here at Frostburg State University Megan McGrath a Sophomore here from Severn, Maryland on the topic.

McGrath has been living in the area for two years and finds it extremely hard to find a job if you are a student. When asked about the crime wave McGrath stated “I got me a knife” she also doesn’t feel limited to work on campus while stating “no, but I’m not getting a job there either”. The most intense run in she had with a local was when someone was trying to convert her to Christianity. She likes the Frostburg community in stating that it’s “Nice, homophobic, racist, hillbillyish” the one thing that she thinks can bring the community together is “if people were more open to other things”. She has not met any friends with a local stating that she barely leaves the house. She has felt out of place with the locals stating that she is “not a conservative and old”.

Photo by Drew Burns (NRG)

Statements have been made that students are unreliable and bad residents. We decided to interview a landlord to get his perspective on the issue.The off-campus student housing of Frostburg State University has recently come under fire due to concern of students living in housing that is not up to compliance with the housing standards of Frostburg’s rental housing code. Who better to talk to than a landlord that rents out to the students of Frostburg State University? I got the chance to interview Chris Hovatter a local landlord about general demographics and issues with housing and tenants.

On the topic of demographics Hovatter states that he generally rents out to “students, but I once rented for 2 years to a missions employee, who was a FSU employee” and that all that matters when deciding on who to rent to it’s all on who has “good references and a good application”.

In regards to tenants and issues that might occur Hovatter has stated that he is “very fortunate to get good tenants. Very successful with collecting what is due”. The main issues that occur have to do with “cleaning the apartment to how it was when they found it” and that the tenants “hopefully leave it in good condition” another issue is with “bringing in animals after the contract was signed” and with “late payments” even though Hovatter is flexible with payments as long as it is reasonable.

In regards to upkeep of properties Hovatter states that he strives to “continuously do it as it is needed” mainly with “painting and cleaning over the summer.” When asked if the recent bottom line articles would affect how he plans to upkeep the house in the future Hovatter states that it “doesn’t affect me at all” and that he is “very responsible” with “fire estinguishers” and that the “appliances are fine”.

Photo by Ashye Proctor

To reiterate, this article is not to create a divide between the locals and student, but instead highlight the issues so the community can work to fix them. Frostburg is students home for nine out of the twelve months in the year. It takes two to tango. Both residents, locals, and students need to stop pointing fingers. Crime as been committed by both locals and students. Both residents, locals, and students need to stop pointing fingers. It takes two to tango. More events like Spring Fest and The Annual Block Party need to happen more often so the locals and students can get more comfortable around each other and feel as one. Simple activities like cleaning up the community together is a perfect way to bridge the gap. 

Sidebar: The Roof is on Fire: Maybe it Just Needs to be Inspected.

There has been a recent crime spike in Frostburg, Maryland. Some may now believe that Frostburg has become more dangerous than it has been for the past few years. But the data shows that over the past few years’ crime has actually gone down statistically.

The crimes that have been occurring recently has been mainly robberies. Over the past five years from the 2014 Uniform Crime Report there has been a general decrease of crime in Allegany County. For example in 2010 there were 48 robberies, 62 in 2011, 42 in 2012, 63 in 2013, and 31 in 2014 with a five-year average of 49 robberies. Looking at this data there seems to be a general decrease of crime according to the most recent data.

Looking at Frostburg State University alone for robberies between the years 2013-2014 there were 0 robberies reported total. This disproves the preconceived idea that Frostburg is become more dangerous recently, and that it really is just a small spike in robberies and it is not Frostburg becoming a dangerous town.

We reached out to Mayor Flanagan for comment but did not get a response.

Heres a article from The Bottom Line about residential properties. Residential Rental Properties