If one were to sit on a bench behind the library at 9:30 on a Thursday night, one would witness the migration of numerous barely-clothed underclassmen making there way to the coveted Cabrini Apartment Complex before 10 p.m. Now this person on the bench must realize that if a student makes it inside the apartments before 10 p.m., the student arrives earlier than the public safety officer and is granted the privilege of staying there all night. This fact is compared to the fashionably late students who only get the pleasure of staying until 2 a.m. Once the clock reaches 2 a.m., a public safety officer will trek upstairs to eject students that were signed-in after 10 p.m.
When inside the apartments, one is graced with a plethora of choices: hang out and drink, hang out and drink or hang out and drink. Carding students to check age does not apply in the apartments, which is a life-saver for many underage students. Throughout many cramped living rooms in the apartments, beer is the single-most important object in the room. Whether one drinks beer or not really does not matter because it is Thursday night and there are no rules or consequences. This statement, however, may be untrue.
As time flies by, one continues to observe the Thursday night action from the bench. It is now 11:48 and a group of men and women in yellow jackets walk by in a hurry. The pack walked by walked by so quickly that it was difficult to realize the group in actuality was public safety on its way to break up a “party,” write a few violations and send back the masses of underclassmen.
Each year, colleges across the country are required to submit a report of the alcohol violations documented that year. In 2004, with an undergraduate population of 1,600, Cabrini had 323 alcohol related violations. Comparing Cabrini to other schools in the area, that number is fairly high. According to the network ABC “Action News” in Phila., Drexel, a school of 17,000, reported only 277 liquor violations and larger schools such as Temple, with 33,000 students, reported only 58 violations.
But what really constitutes and alcohol violations? Here at Cabrini, the policy is clearly accessible through Cabrini.edu. Public safety dedicates a large portion of their home page to crime statistics, liquor violations and Cabrini’s policy on underage drinking and alcohol possession and consumption. For instance, according to the site, “underage students cannot have alcoholic beverages in their rooms and legal-aged students cannot furnish alcoholic beverages to minors.” To maintain fairness, the site also claims: “The college permits legal-aged students and their legal-aged guests to possess and consume alcoholic beverages, in moderation, in some residence hall rooms where all residents are of legal age.”
Finally, “The college considers violations of the alcohol policy and intoxication, disorderliness or offensive behavior resulting from the use of alcoholic beverages to be subject to disciplinary action and parental notification.”
Cabrini’s number of violations last year supersedes other schools. When Charlie Schaffner, director of Public Safety, was emailed regarding the department’s thoughts towards the “Action News” report and the high number of violations at Cabrini, he offered no comments on the specific issue and indicated that any information could be obtained on the website.
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Posted to the web by Shane Evans
