This past academic year, alcohol and marijuana Code of Conduct charges increased, while suspensions and academic misconduct are on the decline.
Ohio University’s Student Code of Conduct violations show an increase of alcohol violations, but university officials said it’s not what it seems.
The number of charges for unauthorized use of alcoholic beverages increased by 292 cases from the 2013-14 academic year to the last academic year.
But Martha Compton, director of Community Standards and Student Responsibility, said the increase is “misleading.”
Last year, the office decided to charge students with both possible alcohol violations at the start of their conduct process, and drop a charge during the investigation if it was found to be unnecessary.
Previously, the office would charge the student with the more serious of the two charges, which is related to intoxication.
However, Compton said in some cases there wasn’t enough evidence to show the student was intoxicated, only that he or she possessed or were using alcohol underage.
Because Compton and her team can’t add a charge once the conduct process has started, the office decided change how it charged a student with an alcohol violation last year.
“In the interest of time and fairness to everybody, at the beginning of last year we started charging pretty much every alcohol offense with both charges and then the determination about which charge would stay was made in the meeting with the student,” Compton said.
Compton said the increase isn’t necessarily due to more people violating the alcohol possession charge, it’s that the office is charging people more accurately.
Additionally,possession or use of marijuana charges saw a spike of 167 violations. In 2014-15, there were 615 violations. There were 448 violations the year before, and 303 during the 2012-13 academic year.
“We are seeing a lot more people, I think, getting caught,” Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones said. “I think maybe more people are smoking pot.”
Hall-Jones thinks smoking marijuana is becoming more “socially acceptable.”
Compton agreed the a shift in attitude toward marijuana is partly why the number has gone up.
“I think folks still seem to not understand that regardless of personal views or whatever, the university just has a different expectation,” Compton said.
Megan Credit, a sophomore studying psychology, said she thinks alcohol use is a problem on campus.
“I feel like society gives this impression that once you get to college, you're supposed to drink all the time when in reality college is not for drinking, it's for studying," she said.
Mike Freeman, a junior studying pre-med, doesn't think the increase in violations is due to students.
“It's not happening more," he said, adding he thinks the university is "cracking down” on alcohol and marijuana use.
Although the alcohol and marijuana violations have increased, the number of total conduct cases has gone down by 97 cases from the 2013-14 academic year to the past academic year.
But the 2,389 cases from the 2014-15 academic year is still higher than the total case number of the 2012-13 academic year, which had 2,127 cases.
Students Defending Students, a subsidiary of OU Student Senate, advises students through the conduct process.
Alex Davis, associate director of SDS, said students should familiarize themselves with the Code of Conduct, especially incoming freshmen.
“A lot of times they’ll have students come into my office who were not aware that that was a violation,” Davis said.
Even when students are away from Athens, they are still subject to code violations, Davis said.
“The Code of Conduct follows you over the summer as well,” Davis said. “Not a lot of people are aware of that.”
Davis said if students are referred to Community Standards, they should stop by the SDS office in Baker Center.
“We are there for students every step of the way,” Davis said.
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