With the influx of traditional students on the Ft. Lauderdale/Davie Campus, Public Safety has also seen an increase in the number of liquor and drug law violations referred for disciplinary action and drug law arrests, as reported in the 2015-2016 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
The report, which was emailed to the NSU community on Sept. 30, shows that liquor law violations increased from 19 in 2013 to 26 in 2014, drug law violations increased from five in 2013 to seven in 2014, and drug law arrests increased from one in 2013 to four in 2014.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, private, non-profit, four-year or above institutions with populations between 20,000 and 29,999 had a total of 4,942 liquor law violations and 1,391 drug abuse violations in 2013. These numbers increased from data collected in 2012.
Aarika Camp, assistant dean for student services and director of Residential Life and Housing, attributes the increase in violations at NSU’s Ft. Lauderdale/Davie campus to the large size of incoming traditional classes — first-time-in-college undergraduate students enrolled full-time.
According to Donald Rudawsky, vice president for institutional effectiveness, NSU’s Ft. Lauderdale/Davie campus had 573 traditional students in fall 2014. As of fall 2015, NSU has identified the preliminary count as 644 students. Rudawsky said the official count won’t be known until Nov. 1.
In comparison to NSU’s regional campuses, the Ft. Lauderdale/Davie campus has significantly higher data of reported incidents. Jim Ewing, director of public safety, also said this is most likely because the Ft. Lauderdale/Davie campus houses residential students and, therefore, has more students on campus at a given time.
“There’s not that many people at a given time at the regional campuses,” he said. “The big numbers on the report are from the residence halls, where the majority of the population lives.”
Ewing said that violations are given when students are found to have violated the law, not just NSU policy.
“These are only for violations of law, which would mean underage drinking or giving alcohol to a minor,” he said.
Camp said the majority of alcohol violations include freshman and sophomores and that very few include juniors and seniors. She also said that said it’s unreasonable to think that college students won’t drink and that the university focuses on providing students with the opportunity to learn from their actions.
“A lot of freshman are exploring their freedoms and trying to see what boundaries they can push,” she said. “Now we’re getting more traditional with our incoming classes, so we expect there to be an increase [of alcohol-related incidents] within that population.”
According to the report, there were two on-campus drug arrests and two on-property arrests. According to Ewing, the on-campus arrests included one student for marijuana possession in a residence hall, and the other involved a non-student who was arrested at the gravel parking lot across from the Sharks Athletics building.
Ewing claimed the two on-property arrests did not include students; they involved unknown individuals who were stopped by Davie police on NSU’s property. In the report, public property includes thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks and parking facilities that are within, immediately adjacent to or accessible from campus.
“The way the Clery Act Law functions, in order for us to define our geography of the campus, we have to claim incidents that occur across the street from the campus,” Ewing said. “We have to go claim on our report all the crimes that occur in that area, in addition to our campus.”
According to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) website, the act mandates that all colleges and universities, both private and public, have federal student aid programs that release information on campus safety. The act also requires that sexual violence incidents and emergency situations be handled a certain way and that crime statistics and security policies are released in an Annual Security Report.
Camp said that while judiciary action is important when addressing the violations, administrators also focus on education and that students are taught about being responsible with alcohol and their actions, beginning at their orientations.
“Our students are responsible, and once they have an infraction or violation, they learn from it,” she said. “And if they do it again, we’ll respond appropriately. We’re trying to allow students to lead their lives and learn from their lessons.”
Camp said that NSU’s procedures for handling violations will continue as they are because they have proven to be successful in the past.
“The way our staff and the university responds to violations isn’t always punitive; it’s also educational,” she said. “Even though you see there’s an increase in violations, you don’t see those students dropping out.”
To see the full report, visit nova.edu/publicsafety/forms/campus_safety_handbook.pdf.
Also reported in 2014:
- Two aggravated assaults on campus
- Two burglaries on campus
- One motor vehicle theft on campus
- Two weapon law arrests on campus, one of which was in a residence hall
- One case of domestic violence in a residence hall
- Two cases of stalking on campus
