A caught on cam profanity laced rant from a Glassboro resident aimed at Rowan University college students is bringing awareness to increased tensions within the community.
Ariana Evans, a senior at Rowan, told NBC10 she was moving into her off-campus housing Tuesday with her fellow students when Robert Mintz, a resident nearby, began shouting at them.
“I’m hearing the word f*** you every day!” Mintz screams in a cellphone video one of the students recorded. “So f*** you! You got a problem? Come over here!”
The students say they called 911 as Mintz continued his rant.
“All he said was that he hated us and he hated my landlord,” said Olivia Graham, another senior at Rowan.
“It was just absurd,” Evans said. “You’re saying this is a family neighborhood and yet you’re screaming. I’m just trying to get an education with affordable housing. Sorry.”
The video went viral after it was posted on social media. NBC10 spoke to Mintz Wednesday and tried to show him the clip.
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“I don’t want to look at it,” he said.
Mintz apologized for the rant however and explained why he lashed out.
“On Thursday and Friday nights there’s in excess of 500 kids walking up and down the streets, one, two, three, drunk and urinating all over the place,” he said.
While Glassboro’s residential population is 19,000, Rowan University’s student population is close to 15,000, jumping nearly 1500 over the last few years. Officials at the school say that of the 10,000 full-time students, less than half of them live on campus.
Glassboro Police Chief Alex Fanfarillo believes the student population is infringing on the neighborhood.
“In the past 15 years, the college grows by leaps and bounds, they’re not prepared for housing and housing is going to find itself off campus and here we are,” Fanfarillo said.
Police say a collaborative effort of added weekend patrols, monitoring of social media and a three strike code of conduct agreement that students who rent must sign has cut their open container, noise and disturbance calls in half over the past four years.
“I feel like the students aren’t represented right,” said Adam Szyfman, a landlord in Glassboro. “They move into a neighborhood and I feel like what that guy did is what every other neighbor thinks of them. There has got to be a better answer.”
As students and local residents continue to find ways to live together, construction is underway on a new seven-story building at Rowan that will include 1400 residence hall units.
