Liquor law violations jumped by 40 percent so far this semester, continuing a trend this academic year of students being caught with alcohol.
The University Police Department reported 87 liquor law violations from the start of the semester to March 2, about 25 more than during the same time period last year, according to the department’s crime log. Police Chief Kevin Hay said “the majority of our cases inside residence halls come from loud noise complaints.”
Liquor law violations have been on an upward ascent in recent years, climbing by 22 percent between 2010 and 2011.
Administrators denied a connection between the jump and increased residence hall monitoring by campus police and house staff. In the fall, UPD began stationing officers in upperclassman residence halls to crack down on people piggybacking inside. In January, house staff picked up five more hours a week of patrolling duties.
“We welcome house staff that is doing floor patrols now, but it’s so new that I don’t think you can draw that conclusion at all,” Hay said.
Tim Miller, associate dean of students and head of the Center for Student Engagement, said the house proctors he oversees have not been sounding more alarms for potential liquor law violations. House staff members are required to notify UPD if they suspect illegal activity, including underage drinking.
Assistant Dean of Students Tara Pereira, who oversees the University’s judicial arm, reported that the number of students who faced liquor law violations increased by 87 percent during the same period. UPD tabulates its liquor law violations by the number of times officers were called to the scene, while the the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities tracks individual student cases.
Pereira said it was too soon to tell what factors contributed to the rise in cases, but said the office had seen fluctuating data throughout the last five years. At the end of the academic year, the office will measure which residence halls report the most liquor law violations and at what times of the night to determine whether added police presence or house staff rounds played a role, she said.
Hay said although alcohol “can be the root of a lot of serious issues,” the increased violations have not led to a spike in assaults.
“We’re trying to maintain an environment that’s conducive to learning, so that when the students who are serious about learning complain and say they can’t study, we’re going to show up and see what’s going on,” Hay said.
“the majority of our cases inside residence halls come from loud noise complaints.” aka people having parties in their rooms. I think this has a lot to do with the crackdown in recent years not only of the dorms but also of the frats. Since the beginning of this year there have been only a handful of frat parties open to the public, which usually is a source of partying for a lot of underclassmen. With frat parties they can go to being reduced to almost none thanks to the university, the only other option for drinking is to have dorm parties, which I think is why more students have been caught by UPD.
I think you bring up a good point.
Although I am 21 now and go to bars, while I was still underage a large portion of my nightlife activities happened around the Greek system (particularly my freshman year two years ago).
From my personal standpoint, I’d have to agree that there is at least a correlation between the two.
Exactly, when I was a freshman at least half of my nightlife was comprised of going to frat parties, mostly because they’re an accessible version of a club where you can drink and party and you’re only a couple of blocks from your room. Since then, the UPD crackdown on frats (and regular parties) has forced more students, particularly underclassmen, to search for partying opportunities elsewhere. Although I’m sure there are other causes, this inevitably leads to students having more parties in their own dorms since there is no other option.
The school really needs to think about the real-life consequences that result from this crackdown on underage drinking.
When kids can’t party in the dorms or at frat parties, what happens? You get naive freshman girls going to Adams Morgan and Georgetown at 1am wearing skimpy little dresses. If they get drunk, are they surrounded by friends who can call eMerge?
No, they become targets for theft or sexual assault. Or they get picked up by the police and it goes on their record. Or, they turn to cocaine and ecstasy, which are less detectable but far more harmful than alcohol.
Underage drinking is bad. But is it worse than these unintended consequences? Are we really OK with chasing underage kids away from the safety of campus and force them into a high-crime city in the middle of the night?
How bad would it be if the administration turned a blind eye and practiced benign neglect of drinking on campus? Yes 21 is the law but is there a need for aggressive enforcement?
What is the benefit to the school to drive this adult activity underground?
GW Kid…..great defense. The “I’m not smart enough to take care of myself, so why doesn’t the University turn a blind eye” defense.
In this respect, once a student is off-campus, the university cannot be held liable for their actions. Therefore, the university doesn’t really care what happens to students off-campus.
If any GW student is incapable of handling themselves within a major metropolitan area, they should’ve went to the Univ. of Missouri…or become a Cornhusker in Nebraska.
“Therefore, the university doesn’t really care what happens to students off-campus.”
Crime Log would seem to suggest otherwise, based on students being written up by UPD for drinking and intoxication that occurs on District owned streets and sidewalks outside the general confines of the campus.
Another big problem is the fact that this school hires TERRIBLE professors. I’m sitting in class right now listening to a guy who is literally unable to use “the google” as he calls it.
Can we focus on academics here, because this is a school after all?
Can we focus on why GWU spends all of its money on advertising its sports programs and events, but doesn’t seem to put much effort in quality academics?
I’m transferring.
whether by design or simply unintended consequences, a good many gw students and graduates are going to go off into the world looking for work with criminal blemishes on their records due to aggressive upd enforcement. Moreover, even if not criminal, it may be that disciplinary notations may remain on their transcripts. This circumstance will hamper if not completely handicap their chances of getting a decent job. The black marks will be something they will always be having to explain. And when you have a black mark, you cant get a good job, when you cant get a good job you dont have much money, when you dont have much money you cant give any to good ole gwu. So, the moral to the story is, dont get cable.
UPD and SJS are nuts.
I received a complaint letter back in my GW days (late 90′s) that claimed that I was doing something to the effect of egging on a fight that supposedly happened in my hallway and being “disruptive”. I was dumbfounded when I read it because I couldn’t even remember what they were talking about, let alone encouraging the fight. UPD never approached me about it on the alleged night either.
As it turns out, it seems that UPD just wrote down everyone’s names that were on the doors in that area. The other guys in that area reminded me about what happened. “Remember when D and J were wrestling in the hall and UPD came last week?” “Oh yeah. I told them to shut the hell up and go to bed.”
We went over to SJS and talked to them. We still have no idea exactly why we were written up, but a few weeks later we got letters dismissing the complaint for lack of evidence.
But yes, it can be a load of BS. Thankfully none of us got black marks over something so dumb. OTOH the stuff we REALLY did and didn’t get caught for is a different issue, haha.