The number of nonviolent judicial offenses decreased on Le Moyne’s campus from 2013 to 2015, according to the 2016 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report, which was published this fall.

The total number of liquor law violations decreased from 186 in 2013 to 140 in 2015. The number of drug violations, however, increased from 19 in 2013, to 23 in 2015. This is the first time it has increased since 2010, when it was 34.

Mark Petterelli, the director of campus security at Le Moyne College, said the number of alcohol violations has gone down because security, in collaboration with Campus Life and Leadership, has tried to turn these into “teachable moments, instead of punishments.”

“We hope to educate students through events like alcohol awareness week,” Petterelli said. “Le Moyne is a college and, just like other colleges nationwide, there is a pervasive culture of alcohol and drug consumption, regardless of the law.”

Petterelli said students are learning from their past mistakes, and being educated not to make these mistakes in general.

Junior Bryan Bauer said he’s glad that people “seem to be drinking less aggressively and that people are instead using their free time in one of the many awesome clubs we have on campus, like Taekwondo Club.”

The security report is a publication of the statistics of crime on campus, including categories such as Criminal Homicide, Sex offences, and “Other offences” [which is broken into two categories: “Arrests” and “Judicial”]. The “Other Offences-Judicial” section is the last part of the statistics in the report, and includes the Liquor Law violations and Drug violations, along with Illegal Weapons Possession.

According to the definitions within the report, the only offenses that security deals with [and are therefore included in the report] are ones that actually break a law, not violations of school policy. Any school policy violations are handled by Campus Life and Leadership. Security only gets involved in situations that the police could be called, but the college would rather handle themselves.

A full version of the  2016 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report can be found at http://www.lemoyne.edu/Experience/Student-Services/Security/Annual-Reports along with archives of all the Security and fire Safety Reports since 2010.