Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Liquor and Alcohol in New Paltz

- Sorry for the lateness but I had posted this blog someplace else by mistake.

As we all know alcohol and drugs are a major part of college life whether we like it or not. Some students get involved with such substances while others are able to turn their backs and not become affiliated with it. Has anyone ever thought about the impact drug and alcohol can have on a community nonetheless on a school campus.?

In the New Paltz website there is a chart which shows the statistics on campus crimes and offenses starting from the year 2005 on to last year. Offenses such as murder, robbery or even aggravated assault do not tend to happen as much as burglary, liquor, drug law violations, and arrests.

Based on this chart in the year 2005 there were 14 accounts of burglary on campus property and 13 in the year 2007. However, there were 88 accounts of liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action in 2007 and 63 drug law arrests in 2007, all on school campus. According to the numbers and offenses, it shows that each year the amount increases by about 5 or 10 and it only seems to be getting worse.

Even though college is known for wild parties and liquor, I believe it will be best if students were to drink responsibly and be more cautious with their actions because they could be putting someone’s life at risk. Somebody can end up in jail or in serious trouble as well. In my opinion partying and drinking should be done to a certain extent and with limitations.

I think I could speak for the students and citizens of the New Paltz community when I write, we should try and improve our behavior as a whole because the image of our school is what makes up the reputation of our campus. No one will like SUNY New Paltz to be known as one of the colleges with high drug/alcohol offenses when we should be known for our great students instead.

Link to the security policies and crime statistics chart below:


http://www.newpaltz.edu/police/

2 comments:

Amy said...

I think New Paltz takes the wrong initiatives in preventing binge drinking on campus. I remember having to take Alcohol EDU, a brief online course, before my freshman year. It was a complete joke, and everyone I talked to said that they didn't bother paying attention to the videos, and looked up the answers to the quizzes online.

Also, New Paltz tries to push the "most New Paltz students have 0-3 drinks a week" statistic on us, when none of us are buying it. I think that's the complete wrong approach.

Brittany Turner said...

Well said. :)