AMHERST - A raucous off-campus house party erupting into a drunken, bloody brawl. Athletes allegedly attacking other partygoers with baseball bats, lacrosse sticks, and bottles. Two students facing attempted murder charges in separate late-night dormitory confrontations that included an alleged rape and a racially charged double stabbing.

That's the grim police blotter at UMass-Amherst over just the past three weeks, a spate of violence that has deeply rattled many students and faculty and left administrators pleading for peace. Even for a campus infamous for rowdy partying and occasional outbursts of violence, the scope and severity, over such a short time frame, have stirred widespread anger and alarm.

The rash of attacks, which law enforcement and college officials describe as highly unusual for UMass, has also prompted soul-searching about the effectiveness of efforts to curb the binge drinking that is believed to be fueling violence.

"We need to shift away from looking at each individual incident, and toward looking at this as a cultural problem," said Marianne Winters, director of the campus women's center. "There's this anticipation, almost an expectation, on campus that violence is a possibility."

UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski said administrators are highly concerned about the violence, but that each episode involved unrelated people and circumstances. He asserted that the campus is safe overall and pointed out that alcohol-fueled fights are not uncommon on large campuses.

"These are very serious and troubling incidents," he said. "But it is not a UMass-Amherst-specific problem. This is an issue across the country, particularly at large flagships."

Of UMass-Amherst's 25,000 students, 19,000 are undergraduates. About 12,000 students live on campus, and Blaguszewski said the university is working with Amherst police to crack down on unruly off-campus parties.

In response to the recent events, the university is also increasing campus police patrols, particulary around dormitories and has urged residential staff to report suspicious behavior, he said.

Some students say altercations are inevitable on a large campus.

"It's a huge school and kind of like its own city," said freshman Nicholas Leoutsakos. "I'm not surprised if there are jackasses who want to hurt other people."

At a student forum last week to discuss the violence, many students focused on the most highly publicized of the three recent criminal incidents.

Jason Vassell, a 23-year-old student who was popular on campus, was charged with stabbing John Bowes, 20, who is not a UMass student, several times around 5 a.m. in a dormitory. Many students said they believed Vassell was defending himself in the confrontation, which police said began when Bowes shouted racial slurs at Vassell, who is black. Bowes also faces criminal charges.

Another UMass student was charged with attempting to rape and strangle a student on campus.