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U AL catches 42 hazers
University alcohol violations on the rise
By Megan Nichols
Student Life Editor
August 04, 2004
The Office of Student Judicial Affairs recently released statistics for code of student conduct violations for 2003-2004 along with a comparison of the last five years' violations.
Citations for the unlawful use of alcoholic beverages have increased dramatically over the past five years. In 1999-2000 there were 449 such violations, while this past year saw 695, an increase of 144 from 2002-2003's total.
Tim Hebson, director of the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and associate dean of students, said the reason the violations had increased was not that students are drinking more, but that the University of Alabama Police Department, Tuscaloosa Police Department and the ABC Board have cracked down on violations in the past couple years.
This summer, however, alcohol violations have been down. This time last summer, Hebson said, there had been about 70 violations, while to date there have been only about 30.
Unlike alcohol, drug violations have stayed relatively stable over the past five years, with 48 in 1999-2000 and 52 last year. Hebson attributed this to the fact that it is harder to catch people doing drugs than using alcohol unlawfully.
"It's definitely harder to catch someone doing drugs because you don't drive by and catch someone doing drugs on their front porch," Hebson said. "Also, I think it happens more off-campus than on. We don't think Tuscaloosa is drug-free at all, we just think it isn't caught as much."
Something that is being caught more is hazing on campus. 1999-2000 has only six hazing violations, while last year there were 42, up from 27 in 2002-2003.
Hebson said this could be because hazing is reported more now than in the past by individuals who experience it.
Demographic information was also included in the report issued by Judicial Affairs.
Males committed 73 percent of all violations. White students were responsible for 91percent of them, with 6 percent committed by black students and other ethnicities making up the remaining 3 percent. Hebson said this was typical of most years.
Also, the highest percentage of students committing violations, 53 percent, had at least a 3.0 GPA. Hebson said that the data does not include repeat offenders, and if it did, one might find that many of the offenders with high GPAs only have one offense.
Rather than go through with formal hearings during which a student's case is heard by a panel of faculty members and students, an overwhelming majority, 99 percent, choose to go the informal route, plead responsible and take whatever sanctions are in order.
Less than one percent of students receive the worst sanction -- suspension. Hebson said this was because when many students see that they will probably be suspended, they choose to just drop out of school. However, in order to reenroll, they have to go through a formal hearing.
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