Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050206
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
DENYING SENIOR PARTY IN TOWN MAY BRING BOYCOTT
Virginia Tech's student government is considering a boycott of the downtown businesses that opposed cordoning off a public parking lot for a senior celebration.Blacksburg's Town Council voted unanimously last week to deny the party request after hearing concerns from members of the Downtown Merchants Association.
And Tech's Student Senate voted almost unanimously this week to "very seriously consider" a boycott of the businesses that were against the request.
"We have to decide whether it's in our best interest to do it or not," said Kevin Mottley, president of the Student Government Association. "The most important thing is that a message has been sent that there is disgruntlement between the students and the merchants."
Mottley said he believes there's a misconception about college students.
"We are not wild savages who are going to tear the town down," he said. "We are members of the community that have spent four, five, six or seven years here and we wanted to celebrate graduation in a way that would please most students."
The celebration, according to student plans, would feature three bands outdoors from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 6.
It would be limited to the Class of 1993 and would attract 3,000 students. Students now are trying to get permission from the university to hold the event on the lawn in front of Schultz Hall on Tech's campus.
Tensions between the town and students go beyond just this incident, Mottley said. "I think people are scared of students."
Nancyne Willoughby, president of the merchants' association, said there were good things the merchants did for students, too.
They provide $2,000 scholarships, advertise in the Tech newspapers and donate items to organizations for fund-raising events.
"Many of us were students," said Willoughby, a Tech alumnus who runs Fringe Benefit. "And we hire students. I don't understand why they'd want to do this."
The event would have occurred on a weekend when parents - potential shoppers and diners - would need parking downtown, she said.
And if the town had allowed one group to throw a party there, what was to stop dozens of other groups from asking?
"I think it sets a bad precedent," she said.
A quick poll among 27 merchants before the last meeting revealed that 20 opposed the party. But the association is not releasing the feelings of the individual businesses.
Mottley said student government would have to poll the 48 voting members of the associations to organize a boycott.
"We're frustrated right now," said Michele Gunter, senior class treasurer.
She said the student government members "listened to the mood of majority of the students on campus. If that's what they decided to do, I guess that's the mood of the student body."
She said she had realized there were some problems with the party plan.
"But we felt that with all of us working together - the town, the students and the merchants - some of those problems could've been solved. We felt it was workable," she said.
The Collegiate Times, Tech's main student newspaper, discouraged the boycott in an editorial this week, saying that "not all seniors support the idea of pointing a finger at businesses that want to avoid possible property damage" and that a boycott could further sour student-town relations.
"I can probably understand where their feelings are," said Mayor Roger Hedgepeth, who also is assistant director of cooperative education at Tech. "I had hoped [the students] would give this objective consideration. . . . We had nothing but the best interests of the students in mind."
But he said the crowd size was incompatible with the area that the students chose.
Willoughby, who employs three Tech seniors, said about 60 percent of her customers are Tech students.
"I don't want to lose them as customers," she said. "I don't want to make them mad. But I don't think they've looked at both sides rationally."
The executive committee of Tech's student government will make a final decision on the boycott on March 16.