As part of a purported trend of a stepped-up police presence on campus, students have already begun to notice more cars patrolling the streets during party time. This, coupled with a miscommunication about the events-registering policy, has left some students in the dark about what is permissible on campus.

Psi Upsilon President Chris Goy ’09 complained of an unusually high presence of Public Safety officers at several parties during Orientation week.

“The more this crackdown continues, the more they’re going to have to deal with an increasingly resistant student population,” Goy said. “Wesleyan students will only take so much before they push back.”

Director of Public Safety David Meyer acknowledged that there had been some busts since students arrived on campus.

“We have confiscated kegs and had issues where people are not moderating kegs at a couple of parties,” he said. “Basically, we had a couple of issues at a couple of fraternities and houses.”

However, the activity had much more to do with seasonal patterns than any increased enforcement, Meyer said.

“People don’t have things to do at the beginning of the year,” he said. “Our busier times are September and October through April and May. It’s business as normal for us around here.”

Some of the contention between Psi U and PSafe has to do with a citation that was issued to the fraternity early Thursday Morning at 12:30 a.m. According to Goy, the citation included an accusation that the fraternity had violated a party policy that was revised near the end of last spring that required that any party or social event with 25 or more people—including fraternity events—be registered with the University. The policy however, has been postponed indefinitely.

“It was never made clear to us that the 25 policy was going to be put in effect until a Public Safety officer cited our house for a violation of the 25 person policy during orientation week, early Thursday morning,” Goy said.

The fraternity president said he had been made aware of the policy’s suspension before orientation week.

“Before Orientation week, it was communicated to us that the 25 person policy would not be put in effect until a date in the future, yet to be announced,” Goy said.

That’s why he was confused when they were accused of violating that very rule.

“To my understanding, the 25 rule policy is no longer in effect with regard to officers on the ground,” he added.

Meyer admitted that by Thursday morning not all Public Safety officers had been told that the rule was not in effect any more. Public Safety briefed its officers about the suspension of the 25-rule on Aug. 31, a day after Psi U’s citation, he said.

“It was a miscommunication to us that has been rectified as of Friday,” he said.

Though Public Safety did cite the fraternity for violating the postponed policy, it is not clear whether the fraternity was accused of anything else.

Because the policy has been postponed, students are currently only required to register parties or social events with 50 or more guests in attendance. Meyer said the 50-person rule will be enforced and always has been enforced.

The rule received some negative student attention after it was passed near the end of last spring, as it has the potential to affect a multitude of social events on campus, in particular events held in wood-frame houses.

“They need to understand that if we have a normal dinner at our house, we’re technically in violation of the 25 person policy. That’s absolutely ridiculous,” Goy said.

Despite current events, Goy remains sympathetic to Public Safety.

“Public Safety has a really hard job and they do a really good job, as best as they can, to protect us and we take that for granted,” Goy said.

In an effort to resolve tensions between the student body and Public Safety, Wesleyan Student Association (WSA) President Matt Ball ’08 is working with the administration and WSA members to create a permanent policy

“Our goal is to set a policy different from this,” Ball said. “The University says the issue is legal liability, that students will be legally liable if someone’s hurt. We’d like to see educational programs instead.”