Washington University is leasing a parcel of land to University City for a new firehouse. University City hopes to break ground on a new firehouse in early 2012, nearly three years after receiving a federal stimulus grant to replace its current facilities. The University is leasing the land to University City for one dollar per year for 75 years.

Despite concerns last spring about students’ disorderly conduct on the Delmar Loop, behavioral issues have subsided considerably in recent months, officials say. According to University City Manager Lehman Walker, an increase in law enforcement officials on the Loop beginning last spring has yielded positive results.

The recent combination of bad weather and joint police presence on the Delmar Loop has subdued the unruly teen behavior that community members noticed earlier in the month. Student Life reported earlier this month that University City was weighing policy changes to handle the rampant disorderly behavior around the street.

Washington University students and University City residents who live north of campus met Tuesday night to address recent noise complaints and plan an upcoming block party scheduled for April 2.

Last weekend, we received word from the Washington University Police Department that patrols from the University City Police Department would increase in the area north of campus. This area, including University Drive, Washington Ave., Kingsbury Blvd., Kingsland Ave., and Trinity Ave, contains property owned by the University and is home to a number of students.

Rose Windmiller and Leah Merrifield assumed new positions in the Office of Government and Community Relations on September 1. Windmiller will serve as the assistant vice chancellor for government and community relations, and Merrifield will work as the executive director for academic-civic engagement.

You will notice that on the south side of Kingsbury Avenue, there are speed bumps every 100 feet or so and signs that indicate that only residents may park on the street there. It is perilous to step into an argument (recounted in “Student arrest spurs questions about zero tolerance policy,” [April 16]) that has caused both sides to seem, at times, quite silly.

Leave it to public urination and a disbanded game of Wiffle ball to bring Wash. U. students and University City residents to loggerheads. University City’s “zero-tolerance policy” has become the flavor of the month in this area of St. Louis, and our ordinarily easy-going campus is abuzz with accusations of profiling and police abuses.

Off-campus safety has been at the forefront of students’ minds this year. With a jump in crime last spring and the recent violent attack on a graduate student, students have appropriately questioned the safety surrounding their off-campus living quarters.

A female graduate student was found physically beaten in the basement laundry room of her off-campus apartment building in the early afternoon on Monday, Dec. 21.