The blunt truth

In the first week of the school year there were five marijuana arrests, with one being a second time offender within two days. Public Safety, along with the department of student affairs are teaming up this year to crack down on marijuana use.

Public Safety Sgt. Jeffery Miller says this year they are arresting both students and non-students, regardless of the amount of marijuana on them — they aren’t making exceptions.

Public Safety does not actively search for illegal substances, though they do come across them in routine situations such as traffic stops. Usually either a Community Assistant or a roommate will contact Public Safety if there is suspected marijuana usage.

CA Matthew Cobb oversees The Village building 6. He says  “most of the time, kids don’t realize how pungent the smell is, so odor is the main giveaway.”

“We are taught to automatically call Public Safety when we smell marijuana,” Cobb explains. “After they arrive, we step out of the situation and let (Public Safety) handle it.”

Public Safety officers Tron Smith and Blake Denna say they find marijuana normally in routine traffic stops. “We don’t approach going into the dorms trying to find weed.”

Since school has started back up, the immediate marijuana arrests have had Public Safety in a hurry to get the situation under control.

“We’ve had a flurry; five cases right at the outset, we really need to get a handle on it, do some communication with the students about it,” Bruce Harshbarger, vice president of student affairs, said. “Clearly we’re having students who arrived with substances in tow at the beginning of semester.”

From Aug. 12-17,  there were five cases involving students using marijuana and one non-student attempting to solicit drugs, according to Public Safety reports.

“To get a hold of marijuana you have to collaborate with a criminal,” Harshbarger said. “You’ve got to interact with someone who could be a danger.”

Because of these unwanted criminals on campus, Public Safety routinely patrols to protect the students.

If a student is apprehended by Public Safety for any wrongdoing, it is up to Public Safety’s discretion to make an arrest or report the student to the Judicial Board, but “they often reserve arresting people if they’re not being cooperative,” Harshbarger said.

The judicial board consists of five students, who are appointed by the president of the Student Government Association, two non-voting faculty advisers and one faculty adviser serving as chair of the board.

Each judicial hearing goes through the same process which includes, “a round table discussion where most of the reports are from Public Safety, occasionally housing, and they’ll go through that report and ask the (accused) to respond,” Harshbarger said.

Punishment normally includes a fine, community service, judicial probation and an online education program.

“People aren’t generally forced to leave their residence hall on first offense, second maybe, third most definitely,” Harshbarger said.

Announcements will be made to the study body if any there will be any adjustment to Public Safety’s procedure regarding marijuana usage.

Posted by Steffi Beigh on Sep 1 2011. Filed under Lead stories, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.