Saint Louis University student Keegan Beatty was charged with underage alcohol possession in an on-campus residence in 2018. The resident advisor or RA reported this to DPS who handled the violation with the help of the Office of Student Responsibility and Community Standards. Beatty’s case is extremely typical of SLU students. Beatty said, “When I lived in an on-campus residence I got caught with having alcohol in my dorm room when my RA heard my friends and I playing music over a speaker on a Friday night before we were going out to downtown St. Louis. The RA wrote down my name and information as well as my friends and then I received an email with the information about my hearing. I found that being sincere and apologizing for my actions led the hearing to go fairly smoothly for what it was, and I received a disciplinary warning as a result of my actions.”
Going into college provides many with excitement and feelings of nervousness as it is a huge change that comes with a great amount of freedom. With this freedom many students, like Beatty, make mistakes, “I wasn’t expecting to get caught, but when I did I found out that I was one of many who had already been busted in my grade.” When informed about the number of cases similar to her own at SLU Beatty stated, “It makes sense to me why the numbers in the report would be so high because we all do it, we’re in college what do you expect?”
This question of expectation is an important one as one analyzes the Saint Louis University Fire and Safety Report. We see numbers in the 200-300+ range each year, for the past three years when we examine the on-campus liquor law violations resulting in disciplinary action. Clery Compliance and Emergency Preparation Officer Mike Parkinson is in charge of gathering the statistics for the referenced Fire and Safety Report. Parkinson says, “Our numbers are higher because we report law violations based upon Missouri’s laws. Missouri is unique because the stomach is a vessel for alcohol, as in, an individual does not have to have alcohol in their hands in order to be charged with an alcohol violation.” Parkinson clarifies what a violation typically entails at SLU specifically, “At SLU 99% of the cases just require disciplinary actions and do not involve the St. Louis Police who have many other issues on their plates. We like to handle our cases on campus the best we can without involving outside parties.” “A disciplinary action is a violation that goes through student conduct, whereas a law violation is where a summons or arrest is issued and then passed on from DPS to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police who then charge the individual(s) criminally, which rarely occurs.”
Image of DPS vehicle taken on SLU's campus Oct 19, 2020.
Resident Advisor Kyle McGrady said, “As an RA we are taught to report things such as underage alcohol or drug possession, abuse or assault etc. through DPS and the conduct office. I spent my time as an RA on the sixth floor of Demattias Hall in 2020, we had a few hiccups, but I think I had a relatively easy time and did not have to write up more than just one or two individuals. In order to write someone up it would take a very clear disturbance of peace on the floor, I rarely ever had to intervene with my specific floor, but I am sure just based on human error that I missed out on a few opportunities to get my residents in trouble related to alcohol. I had other RA friends in other residence halls who had plenty of alcohol related issues. It does seem like these violations are some of the most common, if not the most common of all among freshmen and sophomore students here at SLU.”
The prevalence of these alcohol related violations on campus occur at a high enough rate that DPS and the Office of Student Responsibility and Community Standards should be prompted to take preventative action such as providing or even requiring the implementation of plenty of educational resources, speakers, information sessions etc. for students to utilize during their undergraduate years. When asked about the possibility of including alcohol violation awareness talks etc. Parkinson said, “Due to COVID we have been limited as to what we have been able to deliver to students. We need to do better now that we are back in person for the most part.” Doing better is a fine goal, but we are almost through midterms here at SLU, so it is necessary to know what is concretely being implemented to reduce the number of violations this year.
Assistant Director in the Office of Student Responsibility Bill Bowey was able to provide more information on SLU’s alcohol related preventative efforts. Bowey said, “Our office has three particular prevention offerings. First, we administer AlcoholEdu, which is an online program that each new student must complete. Second, we offer SHARP (SLU Harm and Alcohol Risk Reduction Program). SHARP is offered as an outcome for students who are found responsible for a policy violation related to alcohol, and as a preventative program for groups of students and organizations. Finally, we have staff trained in BASICS, which is a research backed, individualized, harm reduction strategy.” Bowey was also able to provide insight into how SLU RAs are trained to deal with these violations, “Student staff members receive robust training from Housing and Residence Life on a wide range of matters, and our office does collaborate with HRL to provide that training on topics related to Community Standards.”
It seems apparent that DPS and the Office of Student Responsibility have overlap and work with many of the same cases and violations, but it was evident that DPS was not able to speak about current preventative measures in place to the extent that the Office of Student Responsibility was. This ability to speak on current preventative measures is a necessary talking point for both parties. Like Beatty, hundreds of other students each year will deal with a disciplinary process and it is so important for parents, faculty, staff and the student body to all be on the same page when it comes to being informed on SLU’s efforts to make the campus a safe environment.
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