UI STUDENTS' CRIMINAL ACTS HIT 6-YEAR LOW

Despite what might be perceived as University of Iowa students
dotting the police blotter for alcohol-related citations every
weekend, the number of students with non-traffic criminal offenses
fell to its lowest number in six years last year.

Twenty-five percent fewer students were charged in 2006-07 compared
with the previous academic year, falling from 1,678 to 1,274. Of
those, there were 1,239 alcohol-related charges, including 400 for
public intoxication and 621 for underage drinking topping the list.

"If we have students drinking alcohol under age, and students
violating law in other ways, it's not surprising we have (students)
getting charged," said Tom Baker, UI's associate dean for students.
"Anyone walking around Iowa City on a weekend night knows there is
a problem with the law being observed."

Baker said UI has the strictest policies for drugs and alcohol in
the Big Ten, including a "one-strike" eviction policy for drug
possession in the residence halls, the only school with fines for
residence hall alcohol possession, and the only school with
a "two-strike" suspension policy for public intoxication.

"Most students don't get caught again. They learn their lesson. We
hope the intent is to be a deterrent," Baker said.

However, he won't say if the strike system has been a success or
that it does deter student offenses. The strike system was
implemented eight years ago. Baker did not immediately have numbers
available from that time period, and it is not clear what the
policy's effect has been.

The number of alcohol and drug charges fluctuates from year to year.
For example, here is what the statistics on students who received
some criminal charge look like over the past six academic years:
1,274 in 2006-07, 1,678 in 2005-06, 1,441 in 2004-05, 2,009 in
2003-04, 1,709 in 2002-03 and 1,231 in 2001-02.

Baker and other UI officials don't have a clear understanding of
what the meaning behind these number shifts are.

When the decision for arming campus police came up at the last Iowa
state Board of Regents meeting -- a measure that passed in a 6-2
vote -- regent president Michael Gartner explained in his dissent
that what he found most troubling on campus was not an
unequipped police force, but an alarmingly high number of
arrests for alcohol and drugs.

In fact, almost 80 percent of criminal charges -- 1,002 out of 1,290
- -- filed by UI police in 2006 were for alcohol and drug infractions,
such as public intoxication, liquor law violations and drug
possession. That breaks down to 817 for alcohol offenses and 178 for
drug offenses.

For drug arrests, UI's numbers have dropped. Five years ago, UI
police topped the list for most drug arrests (205) in the nation
among schools with 28,000 or more students, according to a Chronicle
of Higher Education report.

"We can't control the type of crime that comes our way," UI Director
of Public Safety Charles Green said, adding he could not speculate
on what any of the numbers mean.

These numbers can be a bit misleading, Green said. He notes that not
even half of the alcohol and drug charges his officers make are
against UI students. Non-students accounted for 546 such charges
while students made up the other 456.

"Students are getting a bad rap," Green said of the assumption that
most of UI police arrests involve students. "It is unfair to
students. I try to give a true picture of who is committing crime on campus."

Green said that despite the numbers, his officers are not hunting
for drug and alcohol violations. If his officers were looking, the
number of students charged by his officers for public intoxication
annually -- 224 -- could be equaled in a single home football
game weekend, he said.

Green noted that his officers reported 72 intoxicated people last
year who were not charged. On that list, 49 were taken to the
hospital and a smaller number got a free ride home or were warned
and released.

"We are looking at behavior. It is not just that they are
intoxicated, sometimes you can see something in their step from a
squad car, but are they so intoxicated they are a danger to
themselves, to others? Are they lying in the street?" Green said.
"Something else really has to draw the officer's attention to get
that public intox charge. If you are willy-nilly trying to go around
town finding people who are intoxicated, that number could be a lot higher."