Police end Silent Disco after noise complaint

About 150 freshmen students danced and sang in the dorm courts before Public Safety and the police arrived Aug. 22. Photo courtesy of Maria Harfouche

On Aug. 22, during Chapman’s Orientation Week, about 150 students took to the basketball courts near the residence halls to participate in the Silent Disco, an event for incoming freshmen, which ended up not being so silent when students began singing loudly to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

The Orange Police Department and Public Safety arrived at the event to end it after an unidentified resident made a noise complaint between 11 and 11:30 p.m., Chief of Public Safety Randy Burba wrote in an email to The Panther. Orange’s noise ordinance prohibits sound over a certain level past 10 p.m. No citations were issued when police arrived.

“Students get excited and people were singing along (to the Silent Disco music),” said Dave Sundby, the director of Residence Life and First Year experience. “Even though there was good energy … it was past (the time of) the noise ordinance. The staff should have asked people to be more quiet and recognize we werein an outdoor space in earshot of neighbors.”

Silent Disco is an event where students receive wireless headphones from a DJ who plays a few different genres of music at the same time. Students can switch back and forth between genres by using a dial on the headphones, indicated by a color change on the border of the headphones.

An Orange resident also walked to the dorms to talk to Residence Life and First Year Experience staff, which organized the event, when the Orange Police Department showed up, Sundby said. Burba would not disclose the resident’s name.

Michael Wahlstei, a resident who lives on Center Street, doesn’t mind living right next to campus where there can be night activity.

“I’ve always lived in college towns, so it’s not something unusual for me,” he said.

Promise Johnson, a freshman broadcast journalism and documentary major who attended the event, saw police cars pull up and said officers told students to lower their voices.

In the next five to 10 minutes after officers arrived, the outdoor event was shut down, Johnson said, leaving students to take part in other nighttime activities offered – like playing billiards, painting or watching a cappella groups perform in the Randall Dining Commons.

“I guess at some point we were being too loud, since we all had headphones and were singing,” Johnson said. “The police told us they were shutting it down … and we all just had to end up leaving.”

When the police officers arrived, the Orientation Leaders – who help monitor the event – took charge of the situation responsibly, Johnson said.

“I think the Orientation Leaders handled things really well,” Johnson said. “I can tell they were doing their best … when they shut it down, but it was all done respectfully.”

Based on the feedback from last year’s Silent Disco event, Residence Life ordered more headphones this year to draw more students, Sundby said.

“There were a lot (of students) on the basketball court,” Johnson said. “There were probably like 100 people. I know people were coming in and out.”

While Johnson returned to the dorms to participate in other activities provided by Residence Life and First Year Experience, she said that some students went off campus to attend fraternity parties.

One of the purposes of these campus events, which are part of Chapman After Dark, is to provide the freshmen with a way to socialize in a safely and on campus, Sundby said.

(The goal is) to hang out and make good, healthy, substance-free choices on campus during orientation,” he said. “We plan all these orientation events so students can connect with each other, be social and feel part of Chapman … (while) providing safe and healthy alternative options (to off-campus parties).”

This is the second year Residence Life and First Year Experience has offered freshmen a silent disco event, and it’s likely that if it’s held again, it will be moved to another location so that Chapman’s neighbors aren’t disturbed.

“I’m excited that students are engaging in these activities we’re putting on that we want for them to be a part of and have fun,” Sundby said. “We need to find a way to continue to provide these opportunities without having the same impact on the community.”

Sundby said there’s a possibility of moving the Silent Disco to the flat-bottomed floor of the Jim Miller Parking Structure or the Lastinger Parking Structure. The Panther reached out to the police for a statement on the event, but had not received a response by press time.