East Lansing community members and students are encouraged to attend an East Lansing Housing Commission meeting at 7 p.m. today at the Delta Chi fraternity, 101 Woodmere Ave.
Representatives from the Parking and Code Enforcement unit, the East Lansing police and fire departments and the East Lansing department of Code Enforcement and Neighborhood Conservation will be at the meeting.
The forum will focus on student-police relations, but anyone interested in city ordinances and other issues should attend, said code enforcement and neighborhood conservation director Howard Asch.
“Anybody is certainly welcome,” he said. “One thing the Housing Commission would like more of is participation and trying to seek out the desire of everyone in the community.”
Housing Commissioner and international relations senior Rick Suhrheinrich said he hopes the meeting will give students a better understanding of city policies on noise violations, parking tickets and litter.
“The goal of the meeting is to improve relations not only with the city and students but get a better dialogue going between the two so each knows where the other is coming from,” he said. “Hopefully we can get out more people who aren’t in trouble so they know what to expect if they get these noise violations and are going to go before the Housing Commission.”
Suhrheinrich, also a member of Delta Sigma Phi, said instances of noise violations can arise when students are not aware of East Lansing ordinances or are wary of police interference.
He said ongoing communication between city officials and students will help create positive relationships.
“College students are loud,” he said. “When I came to the community, I didn’t know a lot of what was facing groups. Meetings like this can only help to improve that relationship.”
Interfraternity Council President Josh Tudor said he expects a good turnout for students, both greek and nongreek.
“This will provide a good opportunity for open dialogue,” he said. “The more communication we have between or organization and the city of East Lansing, the better off we’ll be, and the easier it will be for us to understand what we need to do to maintain our facility and also how to be good neighbors.”
