Evanston resident Eugene Seymour was appalled to learn recently that he lives near college students. “I pay my taxes, I follow the laws, and then all of a sudden I find out I’m living next to college students? It’s despicable,” Seymour said.

Seymour made this discovery, he says, last Friday night, when he saw a group of four or five college-aged visitors enter the house next to his. Though they made no disturbances, Seymour monitored his neighbor closely to make sure there was no trouble. The visitors eventually left at 12:45 a.m.

During his investigation the next day, he found out that his neighbor attends Northwestern, as do the guests he saw the night before. “I thought all the college kids lived on campus. At least then we could contain them. But right next door to me? I don’t even know what to do,” he said.

The neighbor in question is Jay Howard, MEAS ’17, a chemical engineering student with a 3.6 GPA who often volunteers with local underprivileged youth. “Well, I feel bad that my neighbor got scared, but he really has nothing to be afraid of. I’m actually kind of relieved. I thought he was angry at me because I’m black,” Howard said.

Ultimately, Seymour expressed his desire to move on from this incident and find a way to peacefully coexist with college students. “I can’t fixate on this forever. I have a daughter who’s a senior in high school, and I have to accept that she’ll be in college soon. And then her fun-loving ways will endear her to all her neighbors.”