Editor’s Note: Judiciary numbers have been averaged by week to show better correlation between quarters and semesters.
Division of Student Affairs survey results from Feb. 28, which said student drinking has decreased on campus during the past six years, were found to be true according to judiciary numbers obtained by The Post.
The number of cases involving alcohol use by students has decreased slowly over the past three years, according to numbers from the Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibility.
“Part of (the decrease) is due to environmental strategies that we have in place like AlcoholEdu; we’ve had that in place for many years,” said Terry Koons, associate director for campus involvement.
The best way to analyze the numbers would be to divide them by the number of weeks in a quarter or semester, providing the average number of offenses per week, said Jenny Hall-Jones, interim dean of students.
For Fall Semester 2012, there was an average of 43.2 cases a week involving alcohol. That is down from the Fall Quarter of 2011–12, when there was an average of 46.7 cases per week, and the 2010–11 Fall Quarter, when the average was 52.9 cases per week.
Ardy Gonyer, acting director of the Office of Community Standards, said the decrease, while small, is significant.
“I would say that if things were a little down one year and a little up the next year, that, to me, might be a normal fluctuation, but the fact that it’s continually gone down for the past three years is good, very good,” Gonyer said.
The number of offenses of unauthorized uses of alcoholic beverages has increased to an average of 30.1 offenses each week from 26.5 offenses in 2011–12. Although the average did go up, there were still fewer offenses than the fall of 2010–11, when the average was 34.9 cases per week.
While the number has slightly increased since 2011–12, Hall-Jones was not alarmed.
The actual numbers for unauthorized uses of alcohol for Fall Semester 2012 was 452 offenses and 265 offenses for Fall Quarter 2011.
Because the current numbers compare a semester to a quarter, it might appear as though there was a drastic increase, but averaging the numbers isn’t the case.
“When you look at it, it’s like a 200 number and then a 400 number; it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ but it’s totally in the realm of normal,” Hall-Jones said.
The number of offenses for possession or use of marijuana has also declined. The numbers in 2010–11 and 2011–12 lingered at 12.8 and 12.4 offenses, respectively. For Fall Semester 2012, the average dropped to 9.8 offenses each week.
The numbers correspond with OU’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey that showed marijuana use has gone down by 5 percent among the undergraduate student population.
Judy Piercy, associate director for residential education, explained the housing department trains resident assistants to look for signs of parties in the residence halls, such as loud music, not the alcohol or drugs themselves.
“It’s not something that we go out looking for, but if there is a reason that draws our attention to the room, we will knock on the door,” Piercy said.
md781510@ohiou.edu
