UND CRIME REPORT: ALCOHOL ARRESTS UP

The number of crimes reported on UND's campus fell last year, but liquor law violations increased sharply, according to UND Police Chief Duane Czapiewski.

Although 1997 numbers have not been submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, a look at UND's 1997 campus crime report showed that there were 154 liquor law violations on campus last year. In comparison, there were only 82 liquor violations at UND in 1996 and 70 in 1995.

I am concerned about alcohol use, Czapiewski said. Students are at an experimental age and people that age are leaving home for the first time, trying to grow and establish their beliefs, he said.  Alcohol consumption contributed to the death of a UND student in late 1996, the chief said. Francis Delabreau, 26, vanished after attending a party during a blizzard in the early hours of Nov. 17, 1996. Police determined that he died of cold exposure after his body was found in a stranger's van Jan. 4, 1997.  Both before and after Delabreau's death, UND police and other university departments worked to educate students about the effects of alcohol, Czapiewski said.

Studies for North Dakota campuses show that alcohol use affects a student's grades and the dropout rate, Czapiewski said.

Czapiewski isn't surprised by the statistics from last year. He isn't surprised by statistics from any year back to 1983, when he started collecting them.  One year our alcohol consumption may be a little higher, and another year we may have more incidents (relating to) broken relationships, he said.

UND isn't alone in posting an increased number of liquor law violations. At NDSU, liquor violations slightly decreased in 1997, from 186 to 179. But between 1995 and 1996 the number of violations more than doubled from 87.