How best to manage unruly off-campus parties at Slippery Rock University isn’t a simple question to answer. It’s going to require a concerted, collaborative effort to bring the blowouts under better control — and that needs to happen right now.

Slippery Rock Township officials, who on Monday discussed setting new rules to curb the events, have the right idea. The township is considering an ordinance that would assess fines on property owners for so-called “nuisance gatherings.”

That’s a good punitive tool for officials to have at their disposal, and should be put in place as soon as possible. But ultimately it should be considered a last resort, not a cure-all that can reform these parties for the better.

And make no mistake: the objective is about reforming them, not abolishing them altogether — which would be an unrealistic and counter-productive place to start the discussion that needs to occur.

Representatives from the township, university, apartment complex management and student body need to chart a course forward together on this issue. If they fail to do so, it will foster even more resentment and reduce the chances of arriving at an effective solution.

We see three issues that, if properly addressed, can help reform and preserve the events:

n Attendance: Organizers need to find a way to regulate who attends these events and better manage the size of the party.

Estimates on the turnout for the most recent block party, at University Village, range from 3,000 to 6,000 people. That tells us that no one really knows how big the party actually became, and doesn’t instill much confidence in organizers’ assurances that the event was well-planned. How can you effectively plan for or manage something without a reasonable concept of how big it can or will get?

n Security and safety: Party-goers and event organizers need to take more responsibility, financially and logistically, for both these things. Public services, already overextended, should not be used to oversee these events.

State police troopers are not event security. Local volunteer emergency services aren’t a stand-in for on-site EMS.

Organizers should consider raising money — selling tickets; imposing a rent surcharge on tenants — and getting party-goers to share in the cost of providing those vital services.

n Community: University concerns that the parties are damaging SRU’s reputation are well-founded.

College drinking and partying is not a local phenomenon, but what parent wants to send their child to an institution where people are routinely injured or sickened to the point of hospitalization at huge blowouts? What residents wouldn’t be upset about raucous, disruptive events in their community that are planned and held seemingly without concern for the effect on them?

It’s up to student leaders to meet with community representatives and listen to their concerns and complaints. The two groups may have more common ground to work with than they think.