SUNY Fredonia students walk in front of Reed Library last week. P-J photo by M.J. Stafford

Many in Fredonia cast a jaundiced eye toward the SUNY Fredonia campus, especially this time of year with “Fred Fest” approaching. Judging by two recent pieces from the campus newspaper, students return some of the suspicion.

One of the Fredonia Leader articles was a lengthy exploration of the Fred Fest controversy. It included a survey suggesting students were lukewarm about plans for a campus-sponsored event, to replace the “Not Fred Fest” off-campus partying in place since 2015.

The news article also included Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson threatening to call in the National Guard for this May’s events — a statement which got played up in the headline for the article and on the cover of the Leader.

The second article was an opinion piece by Leader Managing Editor Dan Quagliana bashing the village of Fredonia for its numerous recent boil-water orders. Quagliana suggested that both current Fredonia officials, and the “Save Our Reservoir” group partially composed of former village officials, were at fault for the village’s water problems.

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The Fred Fest article, by Abbie Miller and Abigail Jacobson, describes “a rising tension… between community members wanting to protect their property and Fredonia students wanting to celebrate the end of their school year” since the on-campus, officially sanctioned Fred Fest ended. Miller is editor-in-chief and Jacobson is news editor of the Leader.

They evidently did an online poll of students in February about Fred Fest, receiving 110 responses. When asked about attending a school-sanctioned event on the weekend of Fred Fest, only 17.3% responded yes. Around 54% said “maybe,” everyone else said “no.”

The on-campus event was a suggestion of Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson, who also started a Fred Fest reaction committee of local first responders, government officials, and SUNY Fredonia representatives. However, the suggestion came too late to plan anything on campus for this year, though Ferguson hopes something can be put together for 2026.

“Some respondents (to the poll) mentioned that there are other priorities that are more important,” Miller and Jacobson wrote. “One user stated, ‘the (village) has its priorities so wrong,’ while another responded with, ‘Why are you so intent on fixing this when you can’t even make our water safe to drink? Where are your priorities?'”

Ferguson is quoted in the second half of the article. He said Fred Fest used to be “a nice event” but got marred by recent violence and vandalism.

“We’re not here to destroy it and end it,” he said of FredFest. “We’re willing to work with the college to control it.”

However, he made clear that the village will not tolerate its continuation without some help from the campus community.

“We either come to a solution where we [work together] with the college and the students and the student body [to figure out] how we can put on two days worth of activities on and off the campus,” Ferguson said. “Or, unfortunately, I put an eight o’clock curfew on the village and bring in the National Guard … Hopefully we don’t ever have to get to that point.”

According to Miller/Jacobson, “Ferguson would like to see FredFest back on campus with food trucks, local or regional music and activities for students. He mentioned the thought of a beer truck for those who are of legal drinking age. He would limit it to two tickets per student, with one ticket per drink. He also thought about the idea of checking on students on their way in and out to ensure that they are OK.”

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Quagliana’s article discussed the last boil water order of Feb. 8 and noted it was the fifth for the village in two years. “If this was the only time this has happened, no one would care,” he wrote. “But five times in the last two years is completely unheard of — not to mention bewildering.”

Quagliana then wrote that he is from Amherst and that town has never had a boil water order, and “every single person that I’ve talked to on campus who doesn’t live in the area has never had to boil their water.”

The Leader editor goes into the recent history of Fredonia’s water debate — the December 2023 Board of Trustees vote to shut down the treatment plant and get water from Dunkirk, “Save our Reservoir’s” successful lawsuit to stop that course of action, and subsequent events including trustees’ vote last December to approve a State Environmental Quality Review of the water system.

Quagliana called Save Our Reservoir members Kara Christina and Athanasia Landis “part of the reason that Fredonia’s water problem wasn’t fixed when they were in office, and they continue to be part of the problem now.” Christina is a former village trustee and Landis is a former mayor.

Quagliana then went on to belittle a statement by Trustee Nicole Siracuse at a February board meeting deriding social media critics. She suggested that people who think they can do better should run for a trustee’s seat this year.

“While derogatory comments such as ‘brain dead’ are completely unnecessary, the board clearly doesn’t like people complaining about their toxic water, so they ask residents to run for office to fix the problem themselves,” Quagliana wrote. “Just like the Save Our Reservoir group, the current village board of trustees is apparently made up of people who, when they encounter the slightest setback, won’t lift a finger to go out of their way to help the people they’re supposed to be serving.”

Quagliana stated that he is a senior and “there’s a very real chance I might not have gone to college here” had he known about the village’s water problems before enrolling. He added, “And I sure as hell wouldn’t ever choose to live here because of it.”

Quagliana declared, “We live next to a lake, for God’s sake. Stop arguing with each other, sit down and figure out how to fix this.”