Monon Bell weekend arrests drop
By: Jessica Adams
Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: News
There's one major perk to having Monon hosted by Wabash: less people were arrested during this year's Monon weekend than last year.
In 2007, four nonstudents and one student were arrested on DePauw's campus, and this year two nonstudents and one student were arrested here - no DePauw students or guests were arrested at Wabash College.
According to Angie Nally, director of Public Safety, there was one hospital run on Friday night due to alcohol-related illness, but there were no runs on Saturday night.
The arrested guest on Saturday night was an alumnus, which Nally said is nothing out of the ordinary. The Public Safety staff is even briefed before the game to prepare for alumni and intoxicated students.
"The programming that we do before Monon Bell is often related to guests and recent alums because that's usually the two populations that cause the most issues," she said.
Surprisingly, she said, students usually behave themselves well and watch out for each other during the game.
"Sometimes, [finding a sober monitor] is more difficult with alums because they may not be visiting someone specifically, they might just be on campus," Nally said. That makes finding someone sober who wants to take responsibility for them difficult.
Nally said that she doesn't plan on changing anything about Public Safety's policy because it works fairly well. She said she likes that people have an opportunity to get a sober monitor to watch them rather than being automatically charged with a public intoxication charge. But on the other hand, there's always concern that someone will be overly intoxicated and no one will be watching out for their welfare.
Along with health risks, intoxication is a major cause for accidents and vandalism. At 3 a.m. on Friday, an on-duty officer heard glass shattering around Sigma Chi's front door as he paroled Locust Street. Although a suspect hasn't been named, the vandalism did occur from within the house.
Owing to the new regulations about freshmen being allowed on greek property, this weekend's registered parties saw a significant number of freshmen students in attendance.
"We had, for Friday and Saturday night specifically, three first-year students referred to Community Standards and we had several upperclass students that were referred as well," Nally said.
All in all, Nally said, this Monon weekend was nothing out of the ordinary from Public Safety's point of view.
In 2007, four nonstudents and one student were arrested on DePauw's campus, and this year two nonstudents and one student were arrested here - no DePauw students or guests were arrested at Wabash College.
According to Angie Nally, director of Public Safety, there was one hospital run on Friday night due to alcohol-related illness, but there were no runs on Saturday night.
The arrested guest on Saturday night was an alumnus, which Nally said is nothing out of the ordinary. The Public Safety staff is even briefed before the game to prepare for alumni and intoxicated students.
"The programming that we do before Monon Bell is often related to guests and recent alums because that's usually the two populations that cause the most issues," she said.
Surprisingly, she said, students usually behave themselves well and watch out for each other during the game.
"Sometimes, [finding a sober monitor] is more difficult with alums because they may not be visiting someone specifically, they might just be on campus," Nally said. That makes finding someone sober who wants to take responsibility for them difficult.
Nally said that she doesn't plan on changing anything about Public Safety's policy because it works fairly well. She said she likes that people have an opportunity to get a sober monitor to watch them rather than being automatically charged with a public intoxication charge. But on the other hand, there's always concern that someone will be overly intoxicated and no one will be watching out for their welfare.
Along with health risks, intoxication is a major cause for accidents and vandalism. At 3 a.m. on Friday, an on-duty officer heard glass shattering around Sigma Chi's front door as he paroled Locust Street. Although a suspect hasn't been named, the vandalism did occur from within the house.
Owing to the new regulations about freshmen being allowed on greek property, this weekend's registered parties saw a significant number of freshmen students in attendance.
"We had, for Friday and Saturday night specifically, three first-year students referred to Community Standards and we had several upperclass students that were referred as well," Nally said.
All in all, Nally said, this Monon weekend was nothing out of the ordinary from Public Safety's point of view.
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