Last week, new party regulations were delivered to campus residents. Not a bulky manual, but a compelling A4-sized document that details what regulations campus will parties have to adhere to from now on, in compliance with the new environmental permit.
According to Mariëlle Winkler, Health, Safety and Environment expert at the Personnel Department, the new permit is indeed more stringent than the last one, but this need not pose any problems: `We have permission to organize five events and two pop concerts per year, for which loose noise limits apply. Apart from that, we can no longer cause any noise nuisance outside campus borders.'
The noise limits in the old permit turned out in practice to be hard to check in the event of complaints from the neighbors. And, there were `quite a few' complaints, according to Winkler. The new permit specifies that no `recognizable music may be audible' off campus: none at all. `For those organizing a campus party, that doesn't have to be such a big problem: it's usually sufficient to place the speakers such that the sound does not flow off campus,' Winkler says.
In addition, all parties and events with more than fifty expected visitors must be reported three weeks in advance to the UT events office. `If there are still complaints about noise nuisance, it will be easier for security and the police to contact the organizers,' Winkler explains. `The events office also advises party organizers about preventing safety problems during events. For bigger parties that can mean using extra first-aid supplies or relief workers.'
Winkler acknowledges that students worry this spells the end for spontaneous campus parties and insists that there is no need for concern: `A party can still be organized spontaneously, as long as you consider noise pollution and safety issues.'
Translated by Jeroen Latour
