CAN ONE REALLY DISCIPLINE COMMUTER STUDENTS? The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, incubator of college basketball coaches, confronts some of the problems one associates with residential colleges.

Milwaukee Ald. Mike D'Amato said the homeowner occupancy rate around UWM has dropped over the past decade as a result of student misconduct. Last year, police issued 500 noise nuisance violations in his district, 400 of them to UWM students.

Critics say police citations and other legal ramifications are not enough to curb some students' behavior.

The review committee is led by Jane Radue, the UW System's auditor, and includes other officials from UW System administration, UW-Madison, UW-Platteville and UW-Whitewater. There also are two students, including Kyle Duerstein, a UWM junior.

Duerstein says it would be unfair if universities were able to discipline students for underage drinking, noise violations and other non-violent offenses off-campus. As he sees it, the students pay the price when they are fined or prosecuted in court and should not be punished twice.

Milwaukee has been primarily a commuter campus for residents of Southeastern Wisconsin. With Madison solving some of its budget problems by expanding enrollment of Coasties, there are more Wisconsin residents enrolled at Milwaukee than at Madison. That some would attempt to introduce the residential college experience into their neighborhood does not come as a surprise. The neighborhood, however, is a bit unusual. The onetime tony suburb of Shorewood is to the north, the fashionable East Side to its south, the 'hood across the Milwaukee River to the west and Lake Michigan to the east. I have to wonder, contemplating the neighborhood, whether some of the homeowners who are selling out are Brady Street hippies who purchased properties relatively cheaply in the 1960s. As far as I can tell from the article, the houses that receive noise complaints aren't fraternities, which give university judicial officers some leverage.