But in the case of students at the University of Rhode Island, the fight— and the party — is over.

A judge upheld a rule allowing the city of Narragansett to place orange stickers on the fronts of houses that have disrupted their neighborhoods. This law is unfortunate for the many students living in houses in the seaside college town.

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith ruled that the law did not violate the constitutional rights of students or the landlords who own the houses.

Students have appropriately named the stickers Scarlett Letters. If residents take them down before the end of the school year they are fined $100.

Smith ruled, literally, that the Constitution does not guarantee American citizens a right to party, no matter what the Beastie Boys may claim.

“Anyone who has college-aged children knows that ‘hanging out’ is an important, even vital social experience,” Smith wrote. “But just as the Constitution does not recognize a generalized right of social association” of the type that includes “‘chance encounters in dance halls’ … it does not protect college house parties, no matter how many problems of the world may be solved at them.”

Noise violations have also been a sensitive subject in College Park over the years. Residents and council members have often motioned for stricter noise violation regulations in the city due to loud college parties. A noise violation costs $500 in fines and a second violation in six months fines residents $1,000 and the landlord $500.

“Our neighborhoods are serving as the dorms,” Mayor Stephen Brayman complained at a city council meeting in 2008.

In early 2008, the city council tried to lengthen the time period in which students could be charged for a second violation, prompting student protest. Many felt that they could end up paying more due to a first fine issued to students who had rented a house before them. Complicated wording caused a the council to drop the proposal, however.

But though College Park students may be dealing with the threat of noise violations at rowdy off-campus parties, we are still no 21st century Hester Prynnes, marked publicly for the very right that most college students feel they have. The right to party.

So this one goes out to you, University of Rhode Island:

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.