Marywood’s annual campus safety report has shown an increase in alcohol violations along with a reported rape in Madonna Hall last year.
The Annual Security Report acts in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act, which mandates all colleges release their safety policies and statistics from the past three years.
The report is divided into sections. It focuses on offenses and hate crimes in residential halls, on-campus and any off-campus instances.
The report showed an increase in liquor law violations, as the referrals nearly doubled from 39 violations in 2022 to 63 violations in 2023. All 63 of those violations were in residence halls.
Although there was an increase in alcohol violations, these 63 violations do not mean there were 63 different incidents. To combat this, there has been a large focus on educating students when found with alcohol on the dangers of overdrinking.
Director of Housing Erica Armstrong clarifies, “It could mean that there was one incident that had 20 people, and not even all 20 people could be participating in alcohol. It just means 20 people were there and all their names [were] submitted.”
There has also been an increase in drug law violations since 2021. In 2021 there were 3 violations, and this has increased to 14 violations in the past two years.
These drug and alcohol violations have only been referrals and have not yet become arrests.
Campus Security Chief Michael Pasqualicchio states, “We haven’t escalated situations to the point where we have had to include local law enforcement, and if they do respond, they understand that students go through a referral process which is a very good thing for our students.”
The safety report also showed a rape reported in one of the residence halls last year, a first in the past three years. According to Chief Pasqualicchio, this was an isolated incident but both campus safety and residence life hope to keep the residence halls safe.
In an effort to decrease the amount of violations, Campus Safety and Residence Life are partnering to hold events to limit drinking on campus. These activities are planned on the weekends hosted either by RA’s on campus or student engagement.
The most recent event was a s’mores campfire outside of Loughran Hall. They hope to continue these events in hopes of lowering the likelihood of students going out and drinking.
“I would say that for this year, I know the stats are from the last three years, but I think our numbers have been very low with alcohol violations and I think it’s because of the stuff that we are doing in the residence halls,” Armstrong said.
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