University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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STORY: ROBERT LEE PHOTO: ROBERT LEE DESIGN: RINA SEBASTIAN Going off to college and escaping hawk- eyed parents can be an exciting time for many students. That is because college entails greater personal freedom, and while that is often a necessary step in the development of a young adult it can also lead big mistakes. Add alcohol to the mixture and those mistakes can become downright disastrous. The University of Arkansas community was reminded of just how disastrous those mistakes could be when students Rachel Swetnam and Trey Varner were killed in an alcohol related boating accident in May 2013. That tragic accident was one of the driving forces behind the AlcoholEdu initiative that was launched by the Division of Student Affairs at the beginning of the Fall 2014 semester. The goal was to help prevent alcohol related disasters by educating new students, and their parents through a fact-based program on alcohol use. Alcohol use was considerably widespread on campus. According to an anonymous survey of 290 students conducted at the beginning of the academic year by yours truly, an alarming 30 percent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement I refrain from consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. The Division of Student Affairs did not stop at education. It also sought to combat one of the more sinister problems associated with alcohol use on campus through its Razorback Medical Attention and Reporting Exemption Policy. The purpose of the policy was to encourage students to notify the proper authorities during an alcohol related medical emergency by removing the threat of disciplinary action from the university. The exemption applied both to students seeking assistance on behalf of others and the students who received assistance as a result. However, in order to be eligible for the exemption, a student must have completed the AlcoholEdu program as an incoming freshman and must have been in good standing with the Office of Student Standards and Conduct prior to the incident. Repeat violators of the Code of Student Life were not eligible for the exemption. While the policy did not prevent responding law enforcement agencies from issuing citations to students or even arresting them as necessary, the 2012 Campus Crime Statistics Report provided insight to the policy ' s efficacy. From 2010 to 2012, 1140 liquor law violations were referred to the university for disciplinary action compared to only 70 liquor law arrests over that same period, meaning law enforcement agencies often deferred the meting out of punishment to the university except in the most egregious of cases. The AlcoholEdu initiative made the university ' s commitment to student safety abundantly clear. Students may have more freedom when they get to college, but as the adage goes, with great freedom comes great responsibility. No student ' s life is worth getting out of trouble. When in doubt, the University of Arkansas stresses that it is better to be safe than sorry. 18 Fall

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