Norah Beckwith | Staff Writer | nbeckwith@mail.smcvt.edu
The party culture at St. Michael’s College has changed in a way notable to both students and public safety over the last few years.
“The parties are not as big as they once were back in the day,” said Jamie Benson, patrol supervisor and Public Safety officer at St. Michael’s College for 14 years.
Pre-COVID, North Campus was home to many students who hosted events, and Burger Bar, less than a mile off Main Campus, was a hub for 21+ students to drink and socialize. Effects of the pandemic as well as Burger Bar closing have led to a decrease in on-campus and close-to-campus nightlife, Benson said.
Jeffrey Favreau, director of Public Safety, talks about options for bolstering on-campus options. While he doesn’t think bringing back kegs on campus is the right answer, he praises the call to action. “You know, we used to have a bar in Alliot, a long time ago. Maybe it’s time to look into that again.”
In search of nightlife, students continue to venture to downtown Burlington. However, the safety of the city has been called into question, particularly following a deadly shooting earlier this year outside Red Square, a bar on Church Street.
Roguen Carlson, owner, and manager of Einstein’s Taproom in Burlington, has experienced safety concerns associated with what he calls “the late-night crowd.”
Referencing increasing violent crime, drugs, and homelessness, Carlson said, “Compared to what Burlington used to be, yeah, absolutely, there are more criminal elements that are out in the open.”
Carlson also said he doesn’t think the narrative of downtown Burlington being unsafe is the full story. He prefers to call it uncomfortable rather than unsafe. “Compared to, like, the rest of the country and other large cities. I think we’re actually, like, safer than most places,” he said.
Amelia Spillane, ‘26, worked at Red Square in Burlington for about two years before leaving in September of this year. Spillane echoed a similar sentiment, saying in her two years at Red Square, she actually saw safety improve. She saw fewer fights, and they were resolved quickly by security when they did happen.
Spillane worked full-time over the summer of 2022 and said she saw the peak of violence at the bar over that summer. She said there was some sort of fight almost every night, many of which could have escalated if not handled by security.
“I think now, or like, especially towards last winter, last spring, rates of fights breaking out, or [presence of] different weapons, I would say, it decreased. I didn’t see a lot of it last year.”
Spillane says there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding the deadly shooting that happened outside of Red Square on Aug. 24. While she wasn’t working that night, Spillane clarified the weapon used in the shooting was never present in the bar.
She said security did what they could to escort the two involved parties out of the bar using two different exits in hopes of de-escalating the situation.
Both Spillane and Carlson emphasized the importance of security at establishments like Red Square and Einstein’s Taproom.
“[Red Square] has about two or three security members who are very experienced. Two of them were like retired law enforcement, yeah. But other than them, it was college students like you or me,” said Spillane.
Sometimes security doesn’t have the training to handle situations that arise. Due to staffing issues, college-aged security staff learn from firsthand experiences, when ideally more training should be required, Spillane explained.
Bar managers in charge of security aren’t the only ones struggling with under-staffing. Burlington’s police force has also been struggling to find new recruits. VT Digger reported Burlington’s police department has only 65 officers as of November 2024. The current cap on the number of officers is 87, although that number will be revisited at the end of this year.
Burlington Chief of Police Jon Murad, who announced he will be stepping down from his position next year, said the number of officers is “simply inadequate for what we want to be able to provide to our community.”
Spillane said there were occasions when the police were called to Red Square, but they simply never made it to the bar. Carlson has experienced similar problems at Einsteins, saying, “Normally [I] don’t call the police, yeah, unless it’s a very serious matter.”
Minor bar fights and making sure patrons leave when they are asked becomes the job of security, according to Carlson. He also noted atmospheric reasons for not calling the police. “People get weird when they see police in the bar.”
Carlson said while certain factors can make downtown Burlington potentially unsafe, reports of crime, drugs, and homelessness make people who aren’t from larger metropolitan areas uncomfortable. “I think there’s always, like, inherently, a little bit of danger, in the nightlife scene itself.”
“If you’re out for a night out, and you’re not trying to engage or, like, mess with people, you know, you’re usually pretty safe,” Carlson said.
Spillane said that despite her experiences working in nightlife, it hasn’t stopped her from enjoying downtown.
She said she feels “mostly safe,” but if someone is really intoxicated and unaware of themselves she feels uncomfortable and most concerned about safety.