Before Bobcats and their visitors put on that costume and pick up a can of Natty Light, they should know what happens when they party just a little too hard.
Before Bobcats and their visitors put on that costume and pick up a can of Natty Light, they should know what happens when they party just a little too hard.
If a student is arrested by the Athens Police Department or the Ohio University Police Department, he or she will most likely face judiciary action from OU’s Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibility as well as legal consequences.
And students who don’t attend OU but were arrested while partying in Athens can be sanctioned by their home school.
OUPD cross checks their arrest records with enrollment records for the office, and community standards cross checks APD and liquor control arrest records.
The residence halls also turn in reports to Community Standards.
OU’s Student Code of Conduct has two offenses that deal with alcohol — unauthorized use of alcoholic beverages, akin to drinking alcohol underage, and mental or bodily harm to self.
During the 2013-14 academic year, there were 1,034 and 307 offenses, respectively.
The number of offenses does not indicate the number of students who violated the code as one student can have multiple offenses.
Martha Compton, head of Community Standards, said mental or bodily harm is typically used to reflect disorderly conduct by intoxication.
“The typical way that’s determined is somebody is so drunk they are not capable of caring for themselves,” she said. “They’re a danger to themselves. Either they are falling down in the street, they’re passed out somewhere, they don’t know where they are, they can’t get themselves home safely.”
Unauthorized use of alcoholic beverages is used when a student is underage and consuming alcohol and is still coherent.
Mental or bodily harm is for intoxication regardless of age, Compton said.
The Community Standards’ staff uses the reports it receives from both police departments and residential housing to determine which offense a student should be charged with.
Compton said there are always indicators in the police report such as if the person is falling down or the person was sent home with a sober friend.
In the reports from Residential Housing, Compton said she and her staff look for cases where “somebody was throwing up, they were unresponsive, (the resident assistant) had to call the (paramedics) to check on them.”
Residential Housing takes extra measures during Halloween.
All 300 staff members across all the residence halls are on duty for the majority of the weekend.
“We have more enforcement than any other time,” said Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Residential Housing.
Unauthorized use of alcoholic beverages is a B level offense, meaning a student is eligible for probation or suspension.
Mental or bodily harm is an A level offense, meaning a student is eligible for the full scope of disciplinary action including suspension or expulsion, but for a first time alcohol offense, probation is typically what results.
“We want to make sure we have the tools in our tool belt to hold you appropriately accountable depending upon what the behavior was,” Compton said.
@MariaDeVito13
md781510@ohio.edu
