PROVO — Thud.
That's the sound of 55,000 college students descending on Utah Valley as the "BYUVSC" school year gets under way.
Utah Valley State College officially started Wednesday and Brigham Young University begins its new-student orientation today.
For students, that means reunions with old friends, trips to the Cougareat in their newest threads and back-to-school parties.
For local residents, however, it means more traffic, longer lines at local stores and lots of annoyances — like trying to get some sleep while coeds throw a loud back-to-school party next door.
Which begs the question, "Which comes first, the towns or the schools?"
Some say the latter. Some say the former.
"People wouldn't even live here if there wasn't a university," BYU student Ryan McDonald said. "And most of the people that do live here are BYU graduates, so why can't they be sympathetic about something they once experienced? They should be grateful for us because without us they wouldn't have jobs."
While few locals take that position, some residents, like Paul Evans of Provo, recognize that living near a university has some inherent perks and problems.
"We understand the occasional event," Evans said at a recent Provo City Council meeting. "That's part of living near a large university. We're here by choice."
He asked the council to restrict student parking in his neighborhood; and it said yes.
But other valley veterans say BYUVSC students are a nuisance because they're oblivious to to their surroundings.
"I honestly don't think they realize that anyone else inhabits this valley," Orem resident Ty Porter said.
UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said that the college's relationship with its city, Orem, is often strained largely because of the increased traffic that has come with UVSC's fast growth.
But UVSC makes every effort to get public feedback and make subsequent changes, he said.
"Over the years, our relationship (with Orem residents) has been up and down," Hall said. "We try to keep communication open with our neighbors. We try to make sure that they have an access point to talk to our administration."
Regardless of one's opinion, it's hard to ignore the August influx of out-of-state students back into the Provo-Orem area.
According to Provo city traffic engineer Casey Serr, traffic congestion increases 10 percent to 15 percent when BYU resumes each year; but those numbers are getting better.
In 1980 BYU and UVSC students represented 18 percent of the people living in a county of 218,000. Now they make up about 13 percent of the Utah valley population, measured at 368,000 during the 2000 Census.
"It used to be that BYU doubled the population of Provo," said Richard Williams, BYU associate academic vice president for faculty.
Local students — 88 percent of UVSC students are from Utah — and students staying in Utah to work and play in the summertime have made the transition smoother.
But Orem resident Gordon Michaels is still peeved.
"This town was orchards long before (UVSC) took over," he said.
E-mail: lwarner@desnews.com