University officials are unresponsive to questions about drug use at USM while the search for statistics on drug abuse violations on campus continues.
Craig Hutchinson, vice president of Student and University Life, responded to the accessibility of drugs on campus as reported by The Free Press (“USM’s drug culture,” April 14). “I think I would say that I wasn’t terribly surprised,” Hutchinson said. “I think it’s somewhat reflective of the community at large.”
Hutchinson said he could not say whether drugs are a problem on campus and anecdotal evidence did not indicate a problem.
“A few quotes from two or three people really doesn’t say much about drug problems on campus,” Hutchinson said. “Not that there’s any reason to believe they were lying.”
An agent from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said drugs were a problem on campuses all over the state, and USM did not stick out. The agent said he could not give his name because of protocol.
“There are drugs all over campus; we have on-going investigations,” he said.
He said he could not speak on the record of any specific investigations concerning USM.
“We investigate all overdose deaths,” he said when asked about an investigation of the drug-related death of USM student Nicholas J. Johnston in March.
Denise Nelson, director of the Department of Residential Life, said she would not comment on drug use in the residence halls at USM because she was “concerned about being misquoted.”
Paul Dexter, outreach specialist at University Counseling Services (UCS) said some students in violation of drug discipline are referred to UCS by the Department of Residential Life. Dexter said he was unable to provide the numbers of students referred to UCS for drug violations because the database at UCS is coded by diagnosis and not by referral type.
Dexter said “anecdotally,” however, that the number of conduct referrals has decreased as the other types of learning opportunities from UCS have increased.
“We get really more self-referrals than mandated referrals,” Dexter said.
Self-referrals are when students go to UCS on their own accord rather than being directed to UCS by Residential Life.
The Free Press reported a discrepancy in the statistic-keeping methods of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities to disclose campus crime statistics to the public. The federal act is named in memory of Jeanne Clery, a student murdered at LeHigh University in 1986.
The number of drug violations disclosed at USM does not reflect the number of violations that occurred, said Stephen Nelson, assistant to the vice president for USM’s Office of Community Standards.
The Office of Community Standards handles all student drug violation disciplines. The office’s computer system, which is set up to comply with the Clery Act, is outdated and its database has crucial limitations. The system doesn’t include descriptions of the natures of the offenses. The system doesn’t list what disciplinary actions, if any, were taken after the incident. As a result, the system is of very limited use in researching drug violations.
Nelson said statistics were useless in determining a count of drug violations on campus.
Hutchinson said he was not aware of any issues surrounding the statistics kept by the Office of Community Standards.
“I don’t know exactly why that would be,” he said, when informed that the number of violations reported through the Clery Act did not match the number of disciplines on campus. Hutchinson said he would talk to Stephen Nelson about the issue.
The Department of Residential Life does not keep statistics on the number of drug violations that occur in residence halls either, said Denise Nelson.
“There is not a need to duplicate the work of another office,” she said.