Photo: Rachel George for the Diamondback
Until this year, students could easily separate work and play— things that happened on-campus regarded their academic career, while activities off-campus remained only a part of social life.
However, the university has instituted a new policy this year that involves the school’s Office of Student Conduct in altercations that happen with students off campus.
According to Matthew Popkin, the former speaker of the legislature for the Student Government Association, the supplemented Code of Student Conduct “extends the jurisdiction of the Office of Student Conduct to include off- campus incidents that impact the university in some way, from theft and vandalism to sexual assault and violence.”
This means that student misconduct involving the police off-campus can also affect student standing with the University of Maryland.
With this new conduct code, women who are sexually assaulted will now also have the power to implicate those who have assaulted them and possibly have them removed from school if they are university students. Sexual predators can walk around campus even after criminal charges are filed, but perhaps that may change if assaults are now referred to the Office of Student Conduct.
Though Popkin mentioned incidents such as theft and assault, the main infractions that have University of Maryland students worried involve alcohol— underage drinking and serving alcohol to minors at off-campus parties.
Several students have complained especially about the police department’s concentration on drinking and argue that the police are using the new code of conduct to crack down on off-campus parties.
“I’ve heard stories about how the police are sort of abusing the new policy and are using it as a threat,” a junior psychology student, who preferred to remain anonymous, said. “For example, one day some boys were taking out a lot of garbage because they had a party and the police came by and were interrogating them about how many people live there, why they had so much trash and took their student ID information.”
Other students argue that the new policy has heightened police sensitivity to drinking when it is unnecessary and only causes a nuisance.
“Since I live in off campus housing it’s really frustrating because there are a lot more rules and guidelines,” senior communications major Amanda Witt said. “One time my roommate was having her parents come over for her 22nd birthday, and we had to talk to our landlord who had to talk to the City of College Park because we would have gotten in trouble for having people over even with a parent there.”
Some student frustration stems from stories like these— police are cracking down on students who are over 21, even when they are drinking in their homes.
“Three of my roommates were drinking casually on the porch with a few friends and the cops came and made them show their IDs and student IDs,” Witt said. “They were all 21 so it didn’t matter but it’s annoying.”
Tara Danels, a junior economics major, feels that off-campus and campus life should not be intertwined.
“I don’t agree with it because I don’t think students should be punished by the school for what they do off campus,” Danels said.
However, Popkin said that many students fail to realize that the policy is intended to help students by referring them to the school for disciplinary action, rather than referring them to the Prince George’s County Police Department, where they could get in more legal trouble.
“[The code] gives the University Police an additional tool and the ability to refer students to student conduct as opposed to a citation or sending them through the court process, which can be long, arduous and not constructive,” Popkin said.
As far as the perceived concentration on drinking, Popkin said police behavior has not changed due to the new student code.
“This policy change appears to some like it is intended to ‘crack down’ on student behavior, but the judicial system, noise enforcement and police already existed and did enforce this already,” Popkin said. “It is my understanding that it will be mostly focused on egregious violations and repeat offenses.”
Egregious violations, rather than drinking offenses, are what Drew Rauso, senior journalism student, is most concerned about as well.
“I think it’s definitely going to be in the back of people’s heads now,” Rauso said. “Maybe it’ll make people think twice about drunk fighting that kid or stealing something late at night.”
While some students are frustrated with police treatment of off campus parties and drinking, Popkin said that is not the intention of the Office of Student Conduct.
“Any issues of abusing authority from the Office of Student Conduct should definitely be addressed, and it is the responsibility of student leaders…to follow the implementation and make sure it is consistent with the goals and intentions of the policy as approved,” Popkin said.