Arecent letter to the editor, published in the Feb. 20 edition of the Weekly expressed some concerns held by an officer of the Saint Peter Police Department about an increasing prevalence of inappropriate drinking behaviors within the community. Citing 24 years of experience as a police officer, the letter’s author, David Arpin, shared his particular concern with this year’s class in contrast to students of the past, noting specific incidents of misconduct commited by Gustavus students.

However, according to several campus officials, the trends documented from the College perspective fail to reflect those presented in Arpin’s letter.

Director of Campus Safety Carol Brewer holds a dual perspective, with 19 years of experience as a part-time dispatcher for the Saint Peter Police Department before assuming her current role with Campus Safety.

According to Brewer, the local police officers and Campus Safety Officers maintain a close relationship, and she interacts frequently with a police liaison from the department. She responded to the claims of the increase of alcohol related incidents.

“I don’t think it’s any different this year. I’ve been there in past years and took those phone calls myself, and so I don’t know that it’s anything extraordinarily different this year than last year. But of course, I don’t always hear about those complaints anymore, so maybe they’ve had more, maybe they haven’t. But I certainly know they’ve happened in the past as well,” Brewer said, noting that she herself had taken many calls addressing noise complaints and public urination as a dispatcher in the past.

Though Assistant Dean of Students Megan Ruble acknowledged that she has been in her position for only a year and a half, she expressed that while the number of recorded incidents from last year’s academic year were unusually high, trends so far this year have reflected lower numbers. The 2014-15 academic year is aligning more closely statistically with numbers reported previously.

“I don’t want to discount or discredit his experience. He’s been around for 24 years so he certainly has a longer take on this than I do, but it’s not new things, necessarily. It’s similar things that we’ve seen in the past,” Ruble said in reference to the house parties, instances of public urination, and students disturbing local residents as they walk to and from the bars mentioned in Arpin’s letter.

The Medical Amnesty cases have risen during the current school year, though Ruble does not view this as an inherently negative trend.

“Our medical amnesty cases are up this year, which I think is a good thing. It’s a policy which was intended for Gusties to be able to help each other and help themselves, so if we have more of those cases then that means more of those cases are probably being reported, which I appreciate. It’s been obviously friends calling for friends, but a few times it’s also been students who don’t know a student, but who see a student in trouble and then make a call, and that’s fantastic,” Ruble said.

Ruble also said that the first two weekends of the spring semester are historically considered very high risk, as students celebrate a return to campus and participate in Case Day. However, this year has strayed from that trend.

“We had two relatively quiet weekends, which I’m very happy about,” Ruble said.

Director of Residential Life and Interim Assistant Dean of Students Charlie Potts also said that he was particularly pleased with this year’s Case Day weekend.

“We had events going on in ten different halls, pancakes in almost all of them. We had a great turnout on that day that I think showed that students are really interested in connecting and respecting the place and making good decisions. I’ve been actually really happy with that this year, that we’ve had really good turnout for stuff that we have going on in the halls, which isn’t always the case,” Potts said.

Potts said that Residential Life has been intentional about demonstrating that there are alternatives to alcohol while promoting other activities.

Potts also said that he has not observed an increase in behaviors relating to alcohol on campus. However, he emphasized the need to educate students on appropriate behavior within the Saint Peter community, and that actions beyond Gustavus have real-world implications.

“We need to do a good job of educating students that the stuff that happens in town is actually really important and can have lasting effects, sometimes even more so than what happens on campus,” Potts said.

Ultimately, Ruble, Brewer and Potts each expressed that their observations of the drinking behavior on the Gustavus campus has not reflected an increase from previous years.

“It was an editorial that he had the right to share, and certainly, if students are being disruptive to our neighbors, I would encourage them to police each other, and continue to try improve that behavior. It’s certainly something we want to be good neighbors with the community, and I think we should be respectful to them and their property, so that would be my message,” Brewer said.

-Libby Larson