In the week following an ASMSU-sponsored forum for student input on the East Lansing party-noise ordinance, officials from MSU's undergraduate student government have been drafting amendments to the policy using concerns addressed by students at the meeting.

Lynsey Little, ASMSU director of community affairs and chairwoman of the University Student Commission, said both student organizations will create a proposal to amend the six-week-old ordinance.

"Our goal is to get this done as soon as possible, with some specific recommendations by the end of the month," Little said. "I feel confident that it won't be too much of a problem."

Little said while the open discussion between city officials and students at the forum created a better understanding on why the ordinance was passed, both student organizations still feel the language of the policy must be redefined.

"We are keeping our message that we want to make changes in the ordinance," Little said. "We have been working to utilize the resources and relationships that we have to understand what needs to be done."

The ordinance mandates jail time and fines of up to $1,000 for the most severe party-noise offenders.

City council members said they wanted to pass the ordinance as soon as possible, before the football season ended. Police say alcohol and noise violations - and safety concerns - are widespread during the fall semester because of warm weather and home football games.

Little said while the city council had good intentions to pass an ordinance that would try to stop violent parties, the policy needs to be tailored to put more emphasis on ending safety concerns because of violence rather than noise.

Councilmember Bev Baten said she has been thinking of ways to reach the student community about the rules defined by the ordinance.

"There is still a lot of misinformation about what the amendment intended to do," Baten said. "We still need to get in touch with people who were misinformed, and we can still do a better job of reaching out to the masses about the ordinance, but I am just not sure how we can do it."

Deputy City Manager Jean Golden said the forum provided a good opportunity to have an exchange of information and concerns about the policy and she hopes all student and community organizations will help to provide input on how it could be strengthened.

"There were factors present that made it necessary to move quickly, but that doesn't mean we can't work together now to make it a better ordinance," Golden said. "We don't want to outlaw fun in the city; we just want to make sure that no one gets hurt."