Collegiate Times

University administrators have no definite explanation for a substantial drop in caseload at Virginia Tech’s Office of Student Conduct for the spring 2010 semester.

According to data compiled in the office’s annual report for the 2009-10 school year, the office handled 973 cases in the spring 2010 semester, a drop from the 1,666 cases the office took on during the fall 2009 semester.

The 973 cases is the lowest semester total since the office handled 1,008 cases during the spring 2005 semester, when the department switched its recordkeeping to track each student charged with a violation.

“There’s nothing that stands out that seemingly dropped,” said Rohsaan Settle, associate director for the Office of Student Conduct. “I can’t quickly identify what is the rationale that the numbers are different.”

One area with a lower number of violations was underage possession and consumption of alcohol. The office of student conduct handled 226 alcohol-related violations in the spring 2010 semester, down from 551 violations in the fall.

For most school years, spring semesters have a lower caseload, reasons including the end of football season, increased student knowledge of university policy and cold weather during the early portions of the spring semester.

“Weather plays a large factor,” said Steve Clarke, director of Tech’s College Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center. “When it’s colder, people stay inside. People see less going on.”

Clarke noted his office had more referrals later in the spring semester.

“We had a really harsh winter, and then boom, we had the warmest spring we’ve had in years,” he said.

Student conduct records show 201 offending students had their alcohol classes from the spring scheduled for the fall 2010 semester, and Clarke said about 120 have yet to finish their classes.

“Once you get past April 15, it’s really tough to get people through these classes,” Clarke said.

The center runs three different alcohol classes: Making Positive Choices, Motivational Interviews, and Positive Alcohol Choices and Strategies.

For the entire 2009-10 year, the center saw 889 offending students taking alcohol-related classes, up from 738 students in 2008-09, an increase of 17.6 percent.

“There hasn’t been a big fluctuation in drinking behavior,” Clarke said. “It suggests more of the activity of the referral agents rather than the students.”

Referrals for the spring semester were down from almost every referral agent compared to the fall semester, with referrals from residential advisor staff taking the largest drop.

Referrals from Communication Network Services, Tech Police and Blacksburg Police also saw large drops between fall 2009 and spring 2010.

Residential advisor staff rang up just 168 referrals in spring 2010, after submitting 312 referrals in fall 2009.

The overall number of violations reported by residential advisor staff has taken a substantial drop in only the past three years, from 1,173 referrals in the 2007-08 school year, to 530 in the 2008-09 school year, to 480 in 2009-10.

Carl Krieger, assistant director of Residence Life, said residential advisors are informed of university policy and how to refer violations to the Office of Student Conduct before the start of the school year and consistently trained throughout the year.

“They aren’t allowed to look at a university violation and look away,” Krieger said. 

A version of this article appeared in the Sep 16 issue of the Collegiate Times.