After hundreds of complaints about loud party noise, UA students may now be fined $1,000 each time they disturb a neighbor.

City Council members Molly McKasson and Michael Crawford want the council to adopt a noise ordinance similar to those at the University of California at Berkeley and Arizona State University. Those ordinances state that if a complaint is placed and an officer responds, the offender will be fined immediately.

Tucson Police Department Lt. Roberto Villasenor said now the department can only take action if complaining residents are willing to testify in court.

"Last year we got 428 calls complaining of some type of disturbance," Villasenor said. "Of that only 18 people were willing to prosecute. We can't do anything with a number that low."

"We are hoping to get this together within the next few weeks," Crawford told the crowd of about 70 central Tucson residents gathered at a town hall meeting in Duval Auditorium at University Medical Center last night.

"We will use parts of both school ordinances," he said.

McKasson said, "Right now we are at ground zero, but an ordinance like this has a good chance of being passed. Once that happens we hope to have an intensive fining of people having loud parties. Then the word will get out and (the neighborhood) should quiet down. They don't have as many problems at Berkeley."

McKasson said several people have moved out of their homes because of the parties.

"That is something that I will not tolerate anymore," she said. "I live in the area and have gone to the parties to ask them to quiet it down. It has a 'Mom' effect on the boys. I have done everything for five years and something more has to be done."

Others included on the panel were Stephen Brigham, director of community affairs, Carol Thompson, associate dean of students, and Dan Maxwell, director of student programs, representing the university. These offices are working together to attack the problem from the university's side. Thompson said her office has received calls from residents wanting students expelled from the university for their off campus behavior.

"This past fall was pretty good for us," Thompson said. "We have made the greatest gain in reducing noise with fraternities. There is little we can do in penalizing a student for what they do off campus. We have built some things into the New Student Orientation to help correct the problem; one is a presentation with the parents and the students.

"We talk about our expectations as a university community and what kind of community standards we have. That's everything from alcohol use to handling yourself in the classroom. We want students to have fun, but remember that they are a citizen of a community."