Carriage enforces new 4 guests per resident policy

Carriage House Apartments, a popular off-campus housing complex notorious for attracting large numbers of college-aged guests throughout the academic year, is now enforcing a four-guests-per-resident policy.

After what Mansfield’s Sgt. Richard Cournoyer described as “inappropriate behavior,” Carriage House’s management, Campus Apartments, requested for a guest policy to be put into action, Cournoyer said.

Each resident is allowed up to four guests at a time, as long as they show identification and are signed in by a resident, Cournoyer said. Four residents generally occupy a single apartment, so including residents, the new policy allows for 20 people to be in one apartment at a time, and 80 people to be in each four-apartment building.

Several information sessions between Mansfield’s Resident State Troopers, management and residents were held in the beginning of the semester to help the residents assimilate to life as a resident of the town of Mansfield, Cournoyer said.

“It was explained that they are now regular citizens of Mansfield and if they act appropriately, no guest limit will be enforced,” Cournoyer said. “But over the first few weekends of the semester there was an influx of unwanted guests, so management, not the police, decided to enact the four-guest limit.”
Campus Apartments hired State Police on private detail to keep Carriage secure, Cournoyer said. He said they are paying them to be there but are not issuing a quota; it is the police’s job to enforce the policy.

No tenants have received tickets since the establishment of the policy. Only simple trespassing tickets have been issued to unwanted guests who were denied at the entrance and attempted to get into the complex through the woods, said Cournoyer.

“Kids are going to go out and get drunk anyway, there’s no way to prevent it,” said Carriage resident Chris Dombakoi. “If you go here, you should be able to go wherever on the weekends. It’s the random non-UConn students that need to be worried about.”
Though the large crowds that made Carriage popular with UConn students are being controlled, John Armstrong, the director of UConn’s Off-Campus Student Services, does not think it will affect Carriage House’s desirability when it comes to living off-campus.

“I don’t think it will affect students looking to live in Carriage House,” he said. “Everyone thinks everyone who lives in Carriage is looking to party. That’s not the case. A lot of students have already come forward and said that it doesn’t effect them. I still think Carriage will remain one of the most highly desired off-campus locations.”
Armstrong and Cournoyer are trying to set up a forum for residents to meet with the police officers to discuss the new policy, Armstrong said.

“We’re trying to encourage Carriage House residents to initiate discussions,” Armstrong said. “They seem to have the strongest feelings.”

A date for the forum has not yet been established, but in the meantime, Cournoyer encouraged students to speak to him about any concerns.

“Anyone who wants to talk, I’m always open to talking to students,” he said.