AU students are caught violating alcohol rules more than any other on-campus conduct policy, according to Director of Residence Life Rick Treter.
Alcohol is the primary cause of health and safety violations at AU, and it exceeds all other violations tracked by the Office of Campus Life, Treter said.
Even with AU’s no-tolerance alcohol ban in the residence halls, the number of alcohol-related health incidents has “definitely increased,” according to Michael McNair, chief of the Department of Public Safety. Over three-quarters of AU’s on-campus student population has violated university alcohol regulations, The Eagle previously reported.
In 2008, there were 244 “Judicial Referrals” for alcohol violations on the Main Campus and 37 on the Tenley Campus. A total of 281 violations occurred in the residence halls, according to the 2009 Annual Security Report.
Last year, there were also 38 transports. McNair estimated that the number of transports may have doubled in 2009.
AU usually notifies parents after a student’s second violation of alcohol restrictions or when a student’s violation of the university’s alcohol or drug policies is judged by the dean of students to be egregious,” according to the 2009 Annual Security Report.
But this level of abuse is not unique to AU, according to Treter.
“AU’s alcohol issues are pretty much on average with other schools in the area,” he said.
Schools in the D.C. area have tightened restrictions in recent years to combat alcohol abuse on their campuses.
Georgetown University limits on-campus parties to one keg and requires that at least one host be over 21, according to the university’s student newspaper The Hoya. George Washington University and The Catholic University of America send a notification to a student’s parents after every alcohol violation, according to The Washington Post.
At one time, AU permitted on-campus alcohol consumption. In 1983, the Tavern dispensed the largest amount of beer out of any D.C. drinking establishment, The Eagle has previously reported. However, the university banned alcohol on campus in 1984 after a freshman died falling from the roof of the Letts study lounge.
AU regulations now prohibit alcohol at all on-campus events unless authorized by the president, the provost or a vice president.
The number of deaths from an alcohol-related injury increased by nine percent among college students from 1998 to 2001, according to a study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
D.C. recently ranked 37th “drunkest” city by Men’s Health magazine. Cities ranked in the survey were ranked based on death rates from alcoholic liver disease, the frequency of binge drinking and the number of alcohol-related car accidents, the number of DUI arrests and the severity of DUI penalties, according to the magazine.
D.C. raised its legal drinking age to 21 in 1986 and the D.C. City Council decriminalized underage drinking in 2004, according to the Post.
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