Crimes and punishments

SDSU — When San Diego State University Associated Students president James Poet was busted last month by San Diego cops for driving under the influence and pot possession, school officials pledged to get to the bottom of the case and take disciplinary action if the charges were proved. The case is still pending, but statistics recently released by SDSU after a request under the state’s Public Records Act show that, in a school with an enrollment of about 30,000, relatively few students have been brought up for punishment proceedings under the California Code of Regulations.

Some critics contend that university administrators often look the other way to avoid adding to more negative numbers at what is known as one of America’s top-ten party schools. In fact, during the 12-month period ending in June of this year, 7838 violations were handled by the university’s Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities, the department in charge of adjudicating campus discipline, according to the documents.

Nearly half of the referrals, 3215, involved a grab bag of offenses, described in the documents as “violation of any published University policy, rule, regulation, or presidential order (e.g., computer policy, alcohol policy, campus residence hall rules, Greek Guidelines, etc.).” Eight of those violators were expelled, 1366 were put on probation, 320 received a variety of suspensions, 12 were exonerated, and the rest got off with warnings or other dispositions.

The next-highest category of accused offenders included students who had violated the university ban on the “use, possession, manufacture, or distribution of alcoholic beverages (except as expressly permitted by law and University regulations), or public intoxication while on campus or at a University related activity.” Of the 1833 students hauled in on that rap, 9 were expelled, 1187 got probation, 251 were given varieties of suspensions, 197 received warnings, and 17 were exonerated. The rest of the cases were still open, not acted upon, or in other stages of processing. The total cost to taxpayers of doling out SDSU justice, according to the records, was about $260,000.