Campus Pointe authorities weigh in on weekend fight

Campus Pointe plans to return to last semester’s security level in the aftermath of the most recent fight Sunday morning.

“We had cut back on security a little bit during winter break since a lot of students go home, so we will definitely get that back in full swing,” said Sheena Tahyi, director of community operations at Campus Pointe. “We have been encouraging residents who might know anything to come forward and talk to us because we definitely do not want these types of events to happen again.”

Witnesses at the apartment complex described seeing a fight occur between a group of women in the 1835 and 1837 apartment block breezeway between 2 a.m. and 2:10 a.m. Sunday morning.

“All I know was that my window was open, I looked outside, and there were three on three girls fighting each other — it started with one on one,” said Joshua Jarvis, freshman exploratory major. “Then some more girls jumped in. That’s all I really know.”

The Portage County Sheriff’s Department has yet to release an incident report. Tahyi said that in spite of hearing information from some of the residents, Campus Pointe won’t know anything more about the fight until they receive the report.

“We just don’t want to go off speculation,” said Corey Suber, leasing manager. “There’s always three parts to a story, so we want to get at least two of them before we determine what the truth is.”

Portage County Sheriff’s Department normally handles security for Campus Pointe.

“We actually chose Portage County as opposed to an outside security contractor because they have arresting rights,” Tahyi said. “So if there is a party or something like that were to happen again, they are able to arrest people on the spot.”

Tahyi said Campus Pointe has no specific policy or restrictions on parties for their residents. Instead, the complex uses noise violations and complaints from tenants to police their residents.

“We want the atmosphere to be enjoyable for everybody,” Tahyi said. “We can’t say ‘No, you can’t have any guests over.’ But we can set standards where they can’t be disruptive to neighbors; things like that.”

This is the second fight that has occurred at Campus Pointe in the past six months.

A fight involving about 40 people occurred at the apartment complex Sept. 26, 2010.

“We believe that in both situations we’ve had, this time and the one in September, the actual people doing the damage have not been residents. So we feel good about that,” Tahyi said.

Suber said he thinks the high volume of residents, the large size of the apartments and Campus Pointe’s status as the “new place to live” contribute to the apartment complex’s apparent vulnerability to fights.

“With the high number of people here, we’re going to be more susceptible,” Suber said. “We have 600 and some odd residents and with the two incidents combined, we probably only had maybe three residents involved in that. That percentage is very low, especially in comparison to other incidents that smaller properties have had.”

Tahyi said they can’t say for sure what the consequences will be for any residents involved in the altercation.

Suber said if a resident started the fight they would meet with lawyers and those involved to come to a decision.

“We definitely don’t condone that sort of behavior,” Tahyi said. “We do hold our residents accountable for their guests, so we have to wait and see.”

Contact Julie Sickel at [email protected].