Police enforce dry campus at events
Anyone planning to attend this year’s Howl — or similar upcoming campus events — might think twice before drinking alcoholic beverages and coming to the celebration.
USU is a dry campus, which means no individual — regardless of his or her age — is allowed to possess anything containing alcohol while on campus. Capt. Steve Milne, of the USU Police, said this includes drinking before an event, since the body is considered a container.
“I definitely think if they’re going to claim it as a dry campus, they need to enforce it as a dry campus,” said Kellen Hansen, ASUSU Activities director. “Realistically, in the past, the majority of the problems we’ve had are from people who are not students.”
Hansen said he doesn’t claim all students show up to the Howl and Mardi Gras sober, but he believes most USU students know how to behave at these events, whether they’ve been drinking or not.
Of the issues USU Police dealt with at the recent Mardi Gras, only one of the offenders was a USU student, Milne said. Police decided to enforce a zero-tolerance alcohol policy for the first time at the Mardi Gras celebration in the Taggart Student Center.
Milne said he and Sgt. Travis Dunn, also of USU Police, spoke with administrators in the ASUSU Student Involvement and Leadership Center — Linda Zimmerman, executive director, and Kevin Webb, program coordinator — regarding plans to enforce the new policy. Zach Larsen, ASUSU Programming vice president, and Hansen were also informed of the initiative.
Milne said police will give notice ahead of time that anyone planning to attend this year’s Howl should wait until after the event to drink, because USU Police will be on the lookout for anyone who looks or smells like they’ve been drinking.
“When we say a zero alcohol tolerance, we mean zero,” Milne said. “So even if you’re of age, and we walk past you, and we smell alcohol, we’re going to remove you.”
Milne said often people who come to these events consume several alcoholic beverages in a short period of time, right before they come, which causes a rapid increase in blood-alcohol level and subsequent vomiting, passing out, or erratic, violent or irrational behavior.
A handful of Mardi Gras attendees were kicked out because they smelled like alcohol or had admitted to drinking, including three people who were issued citations.
Not all arrests result in the offender being put in handcuffs and taken to jail, Milne said. Sometimes, a citation is written and the individual is released to a friend or family member.
“We still had alcohol there,” Dunn said. “We didn’t smell hardly any alcohol, but the ones we did smell, we booted. Two people were just asked to leave, and then we made two adult arrests because of intoxication and one (minor in possession).”
The Howl and Mardi Gras events are never advertised as drinking parties, Zimmerman said, and she and event organizers just want people to come and have a good time — something that can be done without drinking alcohol.
“More or less, what the police want to see is better-behaved situations,” Hansen said. “I think, most of USU Police, they’re out to teach. They’re definitely taking care of the students as best they can. And they’re really there to protect and serve the students, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.”
Zimmerman, Webb, Larsen and Hansen have all expressed similar sentiments regarding the zero-tolerance alcohol policy — they all support it, as long as police are the ones who have to enforce it. Zimmerman said ASUSU members or volunteers should not have to worry about enforcing the policy.
“These are undergraduate volunteers,” Webb said of the students who work at the Howl and Mardi Gras. “They are not trained in law enforcement or alcohol detection or anything like that. So, if the police want to enforce the law as it’s written, that’s their job, and that’s why we have them here. So we’re totally going to be in support of them with that.”
Webb said he doesn’t believe drinking has been, or ever will be, a pervasive problem at the Howl or Mardi Gras, and ASUSU members will not go out of their way to advertise a zero-tolerance policy.
Hansen agreed, pointing out that there were only three arrests out of the almost 3,000 people who came to the Mardi Gras celebration. He also said of the 6,000 people who came to last year’s Howl, he doesn’t think the 19 arrests were a big problem in comparison to the number of people who attended.
Last year was the 32nd annual celebration of the Howl, and more arrests were made last year than at any other Howl celebration, which, according to Milne, is part of what sparked the discussion about enforcing a stricter alcohol policy.
“If they see someone that’s too drunk, I think it’s fine that they kick them out,” Larsen said. “But, you know, I don’t want it to be like a witch hunt where they’re smelling everyone’s breath or giving everyone a breathalyzer. But it’s not going to be like that, obviously.”
Hansen said he doesn’t condone the use of alcohol at campus events. Some people are always going to come to these events drunk, he said, but they are greatly outnumbered by the number of people who come sober. He also said he’s sure the majority of people who come to these events buzzed are still responsible enough to behave in a way that won’t get them arrested.
Hansen said he supports the zero-tolerance policy, but he doesn’t want it to interfere with the logistics of getting 6,000 people through the TSC doors quickly and safely.
Milne said police will not test blood-alcohol levels of people as they walk in the door, but if someone walks by a cop and they smell of alcohol, they will be stopped and probably be asked to leave.
Webb said he doesn’t believe stricter enforcement of the new policy will have an adverse effect on the number of people who come to the Howl.
“We have an awesome relationship with the police and are totally supportive of everything they do, because they’re totally supportive of us,” Webb said. “So, if I felt like they were going to come in and go gestapo on the event, I’d have a huge concern. But I know that’s not the fact.”
– dan.whitney.smith@aggiemail.usu.edu