A non-University attendee stabbed a guest of a student in the arm as a party held at the Psi Upsilon (Psi U) house on High Street was ended Saturday around 2 a.m. The attacker fled the scene with a group of 10 to 12 other people.

The incident took place at a charity benefit party hosted by a student group that rented the house from Psi U.

“This is the first incident of the sort to have occurred at the house,” said Psi U President JZ Golden ’08. “Psi U has a long history of safe, fun parties. Nothing even remotely like this has ever happened at Psi U.”

Public Safety officers arrived at Psi U and chased the fleeing assailants down William St., where the group collided with a passing student, knocked him to the ground, and kicked him several times. While officers stopped to tend to the student, the group escaped. Public Safety and Middletown Police (MPD) officers later searched for suspects without success.

Both the stabbed visitor and the student were transported to Middlesex Hospital, where they were treated and released.

“It’ll be the good part of a week before we get a better handle on what happened,” Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer said. “We’re just trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together at this point.”

“We have a set of rules that is supposed to govern the invitation of guests to parties and I think, obviously, people are looking into whether or not the rules were applied in this case,” said President Doug Bennet when asked about the situation.

Public Safety is currently investigating the case with the events staff and MPD, who have identified a possible suspect. A group of Middletown High School students who have been causing trouble at their school are under suspicion, Meyer said.

According to University policies on social events, organizers or hosts must register a party occurring on campus with the Dean of Student Services Office if 50 or more people will be in attendance.

The University classifies parties into three phases.

Phase I includes those events open to University students and individually invited guests, with a limit of three guests per student. Phase II events are open to University students and specifically invited guests from other colleges or universities. Phase III events are open to non-university students.

At each event that permits non-University attendees, guests’ IDs must be held at the entrance.

“I don’t want to put the onus on students and say that it’s their fault, but they need to check IDs at the door and not leave things unattended,” Meyer said of the dance party. “I think students are sometimes lax about that.”

Meyer noted the consequences of organizers’ failure to strictly regulate an event’s attendance.

“When you have non-University people—not just local people, but even if you have a guest from another university—it’s very hard to identify them if a situation arises,” he said.

Meyer said that he suspects that event staff turned away the assailants on Saturday, but that they later managed to gain entry.

“Some of the venues are hard to control because of entrances and exits,” he said.

It was because of this same concern that Public Safety, Eclectic Society members, and University administrators decided to hold Eclectic’s annual Halloween Party in MoCon instead of in the society’s house on High St. The Halloween party took place on Saturday night. MPD and several Public Safety officers staffed the party, and ID checking was strictly enforced at the door. The party occurred without any serious incidents or violations.

“It was moved there because of better control of access and it was very successful,” Bennet said.

A venue such as MoCon is more easily secured because of its marked entrances and exits. Many venues, such as program houses and woodframe houses, are easy to identify and access when parties are taking place.

“It’s a wide-open campus and people leave things unattended,” Meyer said. “Some [criminals] do a very good job of blending in the University community.”

Meyer identified a wide range of non-University persons who frequently attend prohibited parties on campus or steal students’ property. Suspects are most commonly male and high-school aged, or in their early 20s. They do not represent any specific ethnic groups.

“Obviously, the actions of certain guests on Friday were despicable, but it would be wrong to attribute their violent behavior to all visitors,” Golden said.