‘Cops at a keg party’ eyed as answer to college crowds

Increasing police presence in Connecticut college towns might be a more effective way to curb student parties than a proposal to change an executive order on crowd sizes, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

The mayor of Mansfield, where University of Connecticut parties have led to at least one school investigation and some students removed from campus housing during the first week alone, has requested the state to consider

amending Lamont’s executive order on gatherings. Officials from nearby Windham are also looking to limit gatherings.

Lamont’s order caps private indoor gatherings at 25 people and 100 people outdoors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, while Mansfield Mayor Toni Moran, Windham Town Council Chairman Tom DeVivo and other officials from those towns want to limit indoor gatherings to 10 people and 25 people outdoors.

Lamont said the state is “providing additional police support” to help Mansfield and other Connecticut college communities. Lamont said he understands the college gatherings include “some risky behavior” with students not wearing masks, but he would prefer

to not adjust the executive order.

“We have generally tried to steer away from having a patchwork of different restrictions, gathering size and such depending on town by town,” Lamont said. “It gets complicated in terms of enforcement. But if it’s not working, we’ll take a second look.”

Mansfield’s request has been sent to the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection for review. Like the governor, Brian Foley, assistant to the commissioner of the DESPP, said state police presence could be the best option to curb large gatherings in Mansfield, which does not have its own local police department.

“We understand the need to have (an ordinance reducing crowd limits),” Foley said. “At the same time, I’m not so sure a college student throwing a raging kegger is reading a government order.

But having cops at a keg party in college really tends to slow things down.”

Foley said other municipalities have also expressed interest in obtaining permission to reduce crowd sizes.

In Mansfield, Moran said she began pushing for the change last month.

“The potential for COVID hot spots is very high where there are large groups of people between the ages of 18 and 25,” Moran said. “Mansfield has an outsized number of people who fall within that age range because of the university, and a regional high school.”

UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said university officials support Moran’s request.

Since UConn students returned last weekend, there have been several reports on social media about large gatherings on and off campus. A video of one of those gatherings was

posted online showing a mask-less crowd packed into a room.

The online posts have led to an investigation into an on-campus gathering that may have violated COVID-19 safety guidelines and some students involved have been removed from school housing, UConn officials said.

Moran said more needs to be done to prevent the parties from happening.

“It isn’t enough to shut down large groups where safety precautions are not being taken,” she said. “By the time that is done, the transmission of the disease will have already happened, if it was going to happen.”

On Friday, Moran, DeVivo, Mansfield Deputy Mayor Ben Shaiken and three state representatives released a statement, calling for residents to “voluntarily abide” by tighter limits on crowd sizes, as the officials wait for a decision on their

request with the state.

“We need assistance and leadership to control large gathering and keeping social gatherings to small groups under 25 people outdoors and 10 people indoors,” DeVivo said.

In Fairfield, college students face harsh penalties if caught holding off-campus gatherings of more than 12 people. Students at Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities face a 30-day suspension for the first offense and expulsion if caught a second time. The schools adopted the policy in coordination with the town.

In New Haven, officials are not considering changing limitations on gatherings, but are instead focusing on how to respond to them.

Rick Fontana, the city’s director of emergency operations, said police who are notified of parties will break them up and identify as many people as possible to help in contact tracing if an outbreak occurs.

Fontana said New Haven police, fire and health departments have been coordinating with officials from Yale, Southern Connecticut and the University of New Haven.

Fontana said they are trying to learn about parties being planned and stop them before they occur. He said he knew of at least one incident where authorities broke up a party before it happened.

“Discouraging students from holding parties with the understanding that those violations will result in severe disciplinary action — including expulsion — may make them reconsider their actions,” Fontana said. “It also has to be noted that the likelihood of community spread of COVID could create a local public health community outbreak, especially in a small cluster of individuals.”