2008 Woodie Awards
Liquor law referrals double
Security report shows increase in violations
Julie Wootton, News EditorThe number of disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations in dorms or residential facilities has almost doubled during the past calendar year, according to the 2006-07 campus security report.
“There is to be no on-campus possession, consumption, or distribution of alcohol, illegal drugs or mood-altering substances, or controlled medication without a prescription," according to the 2007-08 Student Handbook.
There were 23 referrals for liquor law violations in 2004, 24 in 2005 and 42 in 2006, according to the report.
After repeated attempts, none of the resident directors were available to comment.
Senior Ozzie Crocco, an RA in Baldwin-Jenkins, said he enforced liquor law policies early on.
"I established early on that I didn't want alcohol on my floor," Crocco said.
Crocco has been a RA for three years.
Crocco said drinking on campus tends to take place during Jan Term.
"That's a time when RAs really need to step up," Crocco said.
Junior Gabriella Auer, also an RA in BJ, said she has not had to deal with any incidents during her two years as a RA.
Auer said there could have been just a few incidents with multiple students involved.
"Alcohol is becoming more of a social norm," Auer said.
Auer said the number of reported incidents could have to do with the group of RAs during a given year.
According to Security on Campus, Inc., a liquor law violation can be defined as "ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places, furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned."
Associate dean of students Dick Mandeville said there are several possible reasons for the increase in liquor law violations.
“There may be more drinking on campus,” Mandeville said.
He said the increase in disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations may also be related to an increase in the number of students living on campus.
There are currently about 1200 students living on campus and 600-700 students living off-campus, Mandeville said. Having between 40-50 incidents of liquor law violations during the calendar year is quite a low number in comparison to other universities, Mandeville said.
According to
According to the Gonzaga Student Handbook, possession or consumption of alcohol in both interior and exterior common areas is prohibited. In residential facilities reserved for lower division (first and second year) students, students and/or their guests may not consume alcoholic beverages.
Another explanation for the increase in liquor law violations at Whitworth is that a number of incidents involved multiple students, Mandeville said.
“At this point, there have been about 40 incidents for the 2007 calendar year with seven weeks left in the reporting period,” Mandeville said. “This is slightly above the number of instances last year. Over half of those involved were in two instances.”
Mandeville said if a student receives a disciplinary referral, there is a potential for that student to receive a Big Three.
There is no additional reporting that must take place if the student receiving a referral for a liquor law violation is under the age of 21, Mandeville said.
Mandeville said he does not think the increase in reported liquor law violations has to do with the way the policy is enforced.
“In the case of a liquor law violation, an RA will write an incident report focusing on the facts of what he or she observes,” Mandeville said.
After a RA writes the incident report, he/she contacts the resident director, who works with Student Life to arrange a Big Three meeting, Mandeville said.
Mandeville said he sets aside time every day for these types of meetings. Mandeville said he tries to hold the conduct meeting within two days of the incident.
Anyone involved in the incident is present at the meeting and has the option of bringing a support person from the community, Mandeville said.
Mandeville said he generally makes a decision at the conduct meeting as to whether or not a policy was violated, in accordance with the procedures described in the Student Handbook.
A student can appeal the decision through the Student Life Committee, which is comprised of faculty, students and staff, Mandeville said.
General security report
Mandeville said he works with security supervisor Le Roy Fantasia to produce the annual campus security report.
“The purpose of this Campus Security Report is to make available to all current students and employees, and upon request, to any applicant for enrollment or employment an annual survey report that includes specific security policies and statistics concerning criminal offenses that occurred on campus and were reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies,” according to the report.
According to the Security on Campus, Inc., the Jeanne Clearly Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is a federal law which requires all colleges and universities to disclose and make information about security procedures and campus crime open to the public.
Educational institutions must release an annual report before Oct. 1 with statistics about crime on campus for the past three years, according to the Security on Campus, Inc.
Fantasia said the campus security report includes crimes that occur in buildings adjacent to campus and the incidents are recorded in the report as occurring on "public non-campus property."
"The crime report is designed to give students an idea of what is happening on campus and in the property contiguous to campus," Fantasia said.
Fantasia said if an incident occurred at a location close to campus, such as Dider's or Jack-in-the-Box, this incident would be recorded in the campus security report.
Fantasia said that by including incidents that occur on non-campus property, students who are applying to schools have a more accurate picture of crime on campus and in the adjacent areas.
"Universities shouldn't be allowed to hide what goes on," Fantasia said.
Campus crime log
Under The Clearly Act, school security departments are required to keep a crime log of any incident that occurs on campus or is reported to the campuses' security department. This information must be accessible during normal business hours, according to the Security on Campus, Inc.
Fantasia said incidents reported to the security department are recorded in the campus crime log.
"The crime log is supposed to show incidents on campus as they occur," Fantasia said.
Fantasia said in addition to crimes, other incidents are recorded in the log. For instance, if an individual finds something of exceptional value, it will be noted in the log, Fantasia said.
"Anytime we write a report we assign an incident number for record keeping," Fantasia said. "Therefore, the number of incidents doesn't indicate the number of crimes committed on campus."
Fantasia said there have been 114 incident reports as of Nov. 8.
Fantasia said the security department enters applicable incident reports into a database in order to compile the campus security report.
The crime log includes a report of the incident, including the date, time and the general location of the incident, along with a brief disposition, Fantasia said.
According to the log, recent examples of incidents recorded include: bike theft, vandalism, a suspicious person outside one of the theme houses, an injury, an unlicensed motor scooter on campus and the location and arrest of a student for an activity that occurred off-campus.
Contact Julie Wootton at julie.wootton@whitworthian.com.
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