As reported in the Monday edition of The Minnesota Daily, weekend disorderly behaviors in the neighborhoods around campus are clearly up over past year âÄî about one third. This is a problem we immediately identified and are going after. However, I have to disagree that there is a correlation to game weekends as the article stated. We have closely watched police calls for service this fall, and the worst single weekend by far was during the away game at Northwestern. During the season opener away game at Syracuse, more citizens called in disturbances than during either the home California or the Wisconsin games. Something has been different this year, but the data does not connect it to home game weekends. Both in anticipation of the opening of the stadium and in response to the Spring Jam disturbances, the University of Minnesota honored its commitment to fund enhanced police coverage details. While this fallâÄôs off-campus behaviors have by far been short of responsible, it would no doubt have been worse without this work of the UMPD and the MPD. Police enforcement activity is critical, but not sufficient. Fortunately, the University, the City, elected officials, student leadership, the police departments, the neighborhood and business associations are committed to a livable campus community. What appears to be lacking is an appreciation by many University students of how disrespectful behaviors impact the UniversityâÄôs reputation and quality of life in their own neighborhoods. There are, of course, many non-University students who contribute to the problem, but we canâÄôt deny our students are the predominant contributors. If we want the public to continue to support the University, we must behave like we deserve it. I believe MinnesotaâÄôs best and brightest can grasp that. WeâÄôd much prefer studentsâÄô cooperation to citations and arrests. Greg Hestness Assistant Vice President Chief of Police University of Minnesota Please send comments to [email protected].