The administration recently sent out an email to its Charles Village community contacts, detailing its committment to allay the neighborhood’s concerns regarding students living in off-campus housing. The concerns mostly had to do with the transition from the Student/Community Liason (the Shush Lady) to her successor, the Shush Lord.
The Hopkins administration has clearly done its part in continuing to improve relations with the Charles Village community, although it is evident that several transitions have stalled that progress.
This page commends the University for its committment to both the neighborhood and its students, but thinks that it is ultimately up to the students to foster good relations with the Charles Village area. Any problems that off-campus Hopkins students bring to the community should be solved by the students themselves stepping up and acting responsibly.
When Hopkins students live on campus in University owned dorms and apartments, the administration bears the obligation to mitigate the impact they have on the community. It is perfectly fair to hold the school accountable for failure to recycle, failing to meet zoning restrictions or ineffective trash pick up schedules. Students living in on- campus housing are overwhelmingly freshmen and sophomores who may not used to these habitual responsibilities. The administration should and does take it upon itself to instruct students to recycle, keep their dorms clean, etc. Guidance as to accepted behaviors such as these is immensely helpful for students who have never lived on their own before.
At the point where students move off campus, they have generally spent the past two years adjusting to apartment life in the relative shelter of dorms. Some go on to reside in apartment buildings while others move into rowhouses, mixing in with residents of all walks of life who call Charles Village home. The University should not have to apologize to the community on behalf of supposedly mature Hopkins upperclassmen failing to do something as simple as keeping trash off of their porch or respecting the wishes of neighbors seeking quieter nights. Although we are only at Hopkins for four years, and off campus for two, we should still treat the community as if it were our lifelong home, because for our neighbors in Charles Village, it actually is.
