-
RADFORD — One by one, they filed out of the stinking basement, its floor slick with a potent mixture of beer, urine and vomit.
The numbers climbed steadily — 82, 83, 84 — as young women in short skirts and young men in baggy pants left the party with their heads down. Others slipped out windows and ducked out the front door to avoid police.
"What if a fire started upstairs?" Radford Detective Sgt. Chris Caldwell said, shaking his head at the thought.
A voice came over the police radio: "The herd is moving to Clement Street."
On the second Friday of fall semester, the chase was on, as city police patrolled the streets and alleys on Radford University’s western flank, where the majority of off-campus housing — and partying — is clustered.
Along the way, officers wrote citations and made arrests for everything from littering to underage drinking.
Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times
"Let me help you with your posture," said Radford Police Sergeant Chris Caldwell as he helps Radford University student Eric Allen Lieser, 21, stand up after police responded to a call at an off-campus party. Lieser was sent to the hospital with a .34 blood alcohol content. He was later charged with aiding and abetting underage possession of alcohol.
Related story: Officials say lower drinking age is not a cure
Student drinking is banned in residence halls and at most university events. But just a short walk away, fraternities and sororities and other groups cram 100, 150 or more people into keg parties, many of them in basements with inadequate exits.
As the gatherings grow loud and crowded, police move in to break them up, hoping to head off fights, sexual assaults and other alcohol-related crimes.
They find doors barricaded to keep partygoers in and cops out — a serious safety violation that prompts a stern dressing
-
down from police.
Officers also give warnings in an effort to train new students to respect the city’s "zero tolerance" alcohol policies.
"We’re not checking IDs tonight," Caldwell tells some of the partygoers. Police just want the crowd to disperse.
More important than enforcing the rules, though, Caldwell said, police hope their work will prevent a tragedy.
In the struggle to keep college students safe as they experiment with the sometimes deadly mix of alcohol and newfound independence, Radford and its namesake university excel at enforcement.
A growing problem
Nationally, 19 percent of college students surveyed in 2006 met the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence, according to a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report.
The report, titled "What Colleges Need to
Know Now: An Update on College Drinking Research" compiles information gleaned from the best college drinking studies and surveys done over the past decade.
Radford University criminal justice professor Steve Owen studies hazing and other alcohol-related crimes and is familiar with the report and the research on which it is based.
"The good news is, the majority of students do not binge drink," he said. "The bad news is that most research seems to indicate that the percentage of students who do binge drink has gone up for the past 10 years or so."
As binge drinking trends move steadily upward, so have the associated crimes and injuries.
"In 2001, there were an estimated 1,700 alcohol-related deaths among students 18-24, an increase of 6 percent," the report stated.
Researchers estimate that each year "more than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking, and more than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape."
While enforcement of alcohol violations by municipal police and universities is crucial to addressing the problems, it alone is not enough, Owen said.
Similarly, a university with strong prevention programs and
-
weak enforcement will also fall short.
"Really, it’s the combination of good prevention, enforcement and follow up" that seem to work best, Owen said.
A tough approach
By the time Vice President for Student Affairs Norleen Pomerantz arrived at Radford in 1999, she said the university had already cracked down on on-campus drinking.
But that seemed only to push the problem into the city, where the perception among students seemed to be "if they were caught off-campus, it was no big deal," Pomerantz said.
That led university officials to join with Radford city and its police force in a wide-ranging effort to combat alcohol-related problems.
The university retooled its approach, making student conduct regulations apply off-campus.
Today, that policy has teeth.
Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times
Radford police officer E.G. Tribble checks identification at a Radford fraternity party on a recent Friday night.
Related story: Officials say lower drinking age is not a cure
Each week, someone from the dean of students office requests city police arrest and citation records and cross-checks them for student names. Those students are referred to the student conduct office under a "three strikes" alcohol policy that can lead to suspension or dismissal.
According to university statistics, administrators have processed an average of 873 alcohol-related conduct violations per year since 2002. Violations spiked at 1,221 during the 2005-06 school year, and dropped last year to a low of 739.
In addition to various sanctions, the process includes mandatory education programs and, in more serious cases, mandatory professional counseling, Dean of Students Trae
-
Cotton said.
This level of town-gown cooperation is not unique in the New River Valley.
Blacksburg and its police force also work closely with Virginia Tech police and administrators on prevention and enforcement strategies. There, police report student arrests to the university, which enforces a similar "three strikes" policy, Blacksburg Chief Kim Crannis said.
On-campus police enforcement at Radford is also strict.
According to data collected by universities under the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, Radford University’s average annual on-campus alcohol arrest rate between 2005 and 2007 was slightly higher than one arrest per 100 students.
Among 42 Virginia colleges and universities compared for this story, only Hampden-Sydney College and George Mason University ranked higher, with
average rates of 2.8 and 1.3, respectively.
Radford's overall alcohol violations rate of 3.6 per 100 students annually ranked 19th out of 42. That is slightly ahead of Virginia Tech’s overall rate of three violations per 100 students.
In addition to state liquor laws, Radford police use anti-littering ordinances and a local ban on displaying open containers of alcohol to deter excessive drinking.
Radford is 'aggressive'
On a recent Friday night, Hedi Ngongo Saidi, 20 at the time, threw down a plastic cup in front of an officer. That violation led to a cascade of charges for underage possession of alcohol, possession of marijuana and littering.
Radford graduate student Stephen Rush King, 23, ran afoul of the open container ordinance after swigging a Coors Light while standing in the middle of a Radford street.
"But I'm a graduate student," King pleaded. "Can't I just get a warning?"
The answer was no.
A violation of the open container ordinance carries a fine of up to $250, according to city code.
Students who complain that Radford is strict with them are
-
right.
"We are very aggressive on alcohol violations," Caldwell said. "Some of these kids have never been away from home. It's our job to protect them. We're their 'in loco parentis.'"
Students have pushed back.
In 2006, the RU Student Government Association started a petition protesting what they saw as overly aggressive police enforcement.
It garnered more than 1,000 signatures.
But officials haven’t budged. Getting inebriated students home safely, or to jail if necessary, is a top priority.
The guy so drunk he "urinates on the side of 7-Eleven has lost his inhibition," Radford police Chief Don Goodman said. "He’s the next potential victim or the next potential offender.
"I’m a graduate. This is my university. I don’t want bad things to happen here," Goodman said.
Over the years, longtime Mayor Tom
Starnes has heard various complaints about the city’s enforcement.
"Their concept is a little different," Starnes said of students. "We realize that Radford is a college town.
"But … we would hate to see some young college student seriously hurt, or even worse, as a result of the effects of alcoholic beverages."
-30-
