Students and Canton Mayor Share Views on Party Culture

“Students of St. Lawrence and the Mayor of Canton analyze the issues surrounding the university’s party culture”     

The party culture at St. Lawrence University has become a major issue in recent years. Students’ partying habits have caused issues between themselves and locals.   

Michael Dalton, the mayor of Canton, has noticed the party culture of St. Lawrence and SUNY Canton since he moved here in 1985. “I have noticed it the entire time I have lived here,” he said. “Recently it has toned down a little bit, I think that COVID-19 had a major impact on that aspect of party culture here.” Social distancing and quarantine had a major impact on colleges with party cultures.  

Even though the party scene has toned down in recent years because of the pandemic, there are issues that students are still seeing when they go out on the weekends. When freshman Ally Serviss ’28 leaves campus for a night out on the weekends, she has noticed a few things wrong with students’ behaviors. “I have witnessed a good amount of public urination and littering both on and off campus,” she said.  

These two issues public urination and littering have become major issues across the town of Canton. According to Mayor Michael Dalton complaints from residences and businesses have become more frequent. “Complaints have been taking different forms, there are noise complaints along with public urination on properties, but the biggest one recently is open containers” the mayor mentioned. According to New York state law “open containers are illegal. Alcoholic beverages must be in a closed and concealed container.” 

SLU administrators have been doing a decent job at mentioning the repercussions of student’s behavior. Sam Misiani ’28 explains that “our university administration often strives to balance student freedom with community standards. Some of us students might learn the hard way through enforcement actions, but there’s always room for improvement in how rules are communicated and enforced.”  

Even though some students learn the hard way by mixing rules with partying, almost all students respect the community as a whole. Sometimes there are noise complaints made by nearby residents but if police go over to the site, students are likely to comply and cooperate. These issues including public urination, noise complaints, and open containers are becoming more noticeable at universities and colleges from students across the country, but none have gotten too out of control as of right now.