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Posted by: fscpd907

Freshman class outranks other classes in number of police calls



By: Dustin Luca

Posted: 3/11/08

Call logs on record at the UNH Police Department tell an interesting story about the foolish and sometimes darker side of life on campus. There are occasional alcohol violations here, arson and noise complaints there. But nothing stands out more than the trend showing that police calls originate from Stoke Hall, Christensen Hall and Williamson Hall more often than any other buildings on campus.

These three halls house a significant portion of UNH's first year students - Christensen and Williamson are nearly 100 percent first-year students, while Stoke Hall consists of nearly 60 to 70 percent first-year students.

According to Mark Rubinstein, vice president for Student and Academic Services, the reason so many calls are generated by the freshmen class is in part due to their unfamiliarity with college life.

"When a student runs into the conduct system, it only happens once," Rubinstein said. "Repeat offenders are very rare."

Spanning from the beginning of the spring semester to the end of February, several locations on campus stood out in the call logs. In the case of Stoke Hall, nearly half of the 16 calls originated from suspicions of drug activity, including one that ended in an arrest. The rest of the calls were based on an array of different situations, including criminal mischief and assault. For Christensen Hall, over half of the 15 calls were related to alcohol violations and suspicions of drug use.

Williamson Hall also had a larger number of calls than most of the buildings on campus, but none of them focused on suspicions of drug use like Stoke Hall and Christensen Hall. Instead, many of the calls focused on seemingly random call types, including one alcohol violation call, one criminal mischief call, a single case of arson and one property crime.

According to Rubinstein, there is little to explain the cause for the seemingly hard partying lifestyle in Christensen Hall and Stoke Hall not appearing in Williamson Hall, but fluctuations in where the activity occurs most often is normal.

"If you look at conduct data, what you'll see from year to year is that we see significant variation [in where calls originate from]," Rubinstein said. "If you look at past years, you can see that kind of variation."

An overall look at the residential apartment communities on campus also yielded interesting results, with 11 calls originating from the Woodside community, nine coming from the Gables Apartments and nine being made from the Forest Park community. For Woodside, five of the calls were related to suspicions of drug activity while the rest focused on other types of calls. Gables and Forest Park did not show a pattern towards any particular type of call.

UNH Police Deputy Chief Paul Dean said that the maturity of the students who call is definitely a factor.

"Freshmen lack maturity sometimes," Dean said, admitting that he was not aware of why younger students have historically generated more calls than students from any other class. "If I had the answer… I would be a rich man."

According to Joanne Stella of Student Senate Legal Services, the answer lies in the fact that a younger student is not familiar with his or her surroundings.

"A lot of the problem with younger people is being able to accurately do a risk assessment," Stella said. "The older you get, the better you get at risk assessing because you realize have more to lose."

Stella, who often becomes involved with the students that generate the calls if and when an arrest occurs, said that freshmen typically do generate the most activity. However, she explained that before students take risks, it's imperative to understand the consequences.

"If you're going to jump out of an airplane, you need check to make sure your parachute will work, you need to be with experienced people, and you have to know what you're doing," Stella said, citing the recent death of a Keene State student as an example of her argument.

Matthew Atwood, 20, who graduated from Exeter High School before attending Keene State College for the past three years, was studying abroad in Australia when he became intoxicated and fell through a glass door, dying from his injuries. It was his first week studying abroad.

"Here we have a kid who was in a new place, did not have the right supports, and did not know what he was doing," said Stella. "He got intoxicated and he fell through a [door] and bled to death."

According to Rubinstein, the enforcement of rules at the college is the same no matter what year you are in, but if a student is older when he or she is caught carrying out problematic behavior, it will follow the student with greater repercussions.

"You're closer to leaving the university, so that choice you made as a 20 or 21 year old junior or senior may be different than if you made that mistake as a first year student," Rubinstein said. "It's a little easier to explain to someone that it was a freshman mistake."

Because it is more common for freshmen to run into the conduct system, the college makes an effort to house younger students near older ones in an effort to provide new students with a responsible source of peer support.

"Sophomores, juniors and seniors are more familiar with UNH policies, so they can nudge them in the right direction," Rubinstein said. "Freshmen express interest in being in buildings that are predominately first year students… By surrounding them with upper classmen, the upper classmen might notice something and say, 'Hey guys, bad choice.'"

This decision, Rubinstein said, is working.

"We've seen a significant decline in arrests as well as conduct cases," Rubinstein said. "So I think that we're collectively getting better at working together as a community."

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Posted by: lofu

This seems like common sense to me. First time away from mom and dad and the kids go a little buck wild. I would imagine this is true at every school. Plus some of these kids may be experimenting with alcohol for the first time and not know how even a relatively small amount can affect their judgement.

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Posted by: tacpup82

Freshmen lack maturity sometimes," Dean said, admitting that he was not aware of why younger students have historically generated more calls than students from any other class. "If I had the answer… I would be a rich man." - Deputy Chief Dean, UNH PD


Hmmm.... Yup, I think I could come up with an answer...they are 17 and 18 year old freshman away from mommy and daddy for the first time attending one of the top party schools in the nation.
So when and where do I collect my money now that I answered this perplexing question of common sense?

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Posted by: Deuce

Quote:

Originally Posted by tacpup82 So when and where do I collect my money now that I answered this perplexing question of common sense?

None for you, the question was already answered by the poster above you on 3-12-08 using the same terminology.. Damn boot, sdsu...

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Posted by: tacpup82

Thanks for pointing that out.. by the way, love your little icon thing...very PC

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Posted by: Deuce

No problem friendo I'm helpful to a fault. And ya, I'm also very PC. I take special care not to offend, just ask anyone...

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Posted by: 5-0

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deuce No problem friendo I'm helpful to a fault. And ya, I'm also very PC. I take special care not to offend, just ask anyone...

We'll start a poll on Main South to make sure that trash is satisfied with the service WPD is providing them.

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Posted by: Deuce

Quote:

Originally Posted by 5-0 We'll start a poll on Main South to make sure that trash is satisfied with the service WPD is providing them.

You can get their opinion when I give it to 'em...

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