A crowd of about 6,500, up from 3,000 last year, participated in the Haunted Hillsborough Hike Friday with little problem, according to Campus Police Lt. Larry Ellis.
There were 20 alcohol violations, two arrests and three citations, he said.
Campus and Raleigh police worked together to stabilize Hillsborough Street, and Student Body President Jay Dawkins said the event worked well.
“The nightmare that many authorities expected to happen didn’t happen,” Dawkins, a junior in civil engineering, said.
The no-tolerance policy from police meant some violations on Hillsborough Street would follow students back to campus through the Office of Student Conduct, but Ellis said it would be dependent on the type of violation.
While there were no major problems, Dawkins said CSLEPS is planning a neighborhood cleanup to collect trash from areas around Hillsborough Street this Friday.
“If it’s not an immediate help, it will certainly be a positive thing for the neighborhoods,” he said.
For future hikes, Dawkins said they would plan to clean up more immediately after the event.
The University had added regulations on campus Friday to keep people not affiliated with N.C. State off campus.
The town of Chapel Hill made similar efforts, as the town tried to downgrade Halloween events on Franklin Street that had become unmanageable.
Many parking lots on campus were accessible only to those with valid University IDs, and Dawkins said there did not appear to be many non-students on Hillsborough Street.
The street was kept open to keep students out of the road and the event more contained within establishments, but Brandon Vick, a senior in communication, said it should be more open.
“They need to close down the street to make it a bigger event,” he said. “Everybody was well behaved for the amount of people out there.”
An event that encouraged students from other schools to participate would make it more enjoyable for N.C. State students, Vick said.
“They should be more leniant,” he said. “It would be a lot more fun for the students, be like N.C. State’s version of Franklin Street.”
One addition to this year’s event was Spook Hunger, a Student Government-created Halloween food drive.
Spook Hunger collected about $400 and 2,000 pounds of food, according to Dawkins.
“Urban Ministries will distribute [the food] around Raleigh and this area,” he said.
