"To serve and protect:" this basic goal lies at the core of any police force, with campus police as no exception. At different schools, this task entails different responsibilities, but the motive does not waver - university police aim to ensure safety for students and other community members. So how to explain the following? On a given weekend, Brandeis usually make an appearance at a few parties, but at the University of Indiana, Bloomington - #3 party school in the nation according to Princeton Review's 2003 rankings - the police said they rarely report to parties.

Brandeis students say they notice this disparity: "At other schools when a party gets broken up - it's a big deal," Rebecca Toddings '05 said. "Here, it's the norm."

And according to Rachel Kane '05, "Every school is a party school compared to Brandeis."

Are police at Indiana neglecting their basic duties? Are Brandeis officers taking theirs to an unnecessary extreme? Is it even fair to compare the two schools?

An investigation into the matter reveals that according to campus police, contrasting policies arise partially from different philosophies and strategies, but also from the logical and inevitable demands of various physical settings.



Taking action: arrests vs. referrals

Police do not choose when to act, said Brandeis Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan. "When we get a call, we're obligated to go ... (the caller) has an expectation that we will go and quell their concerns."

Callahan said Brandeis police rarely send students home immediately upon arriving at a party. Instead, they evaluate the noise level, and ask everyone present to quiet down. Generally, officers ask guests to leave only after two or three unheeded warnings. Callahan said that during the 2002-2003 school year, Brandeis Police responded to 203 noise complaints and 31 calls about other disturbances, as well as 11 calls that resulted in dispersals.

Indiana University Lieutenant and Public Information Officer Jerry Minger described a different situation: During the weekend of Sept. 12 to 14, the weekend of a home football game, the IUPD did not receive a noise complaint from a single party.

Indiana police did, however, arrest 36 students that weekend, most in cases involving underage drinking. During the calendar year of 2002, they arrested 479 students for this offense, and referred another 1037 students to the dean.

These figures represent, in order, 1.6 and 3.5 percent of the 30,752 undergraduates enrolled in fall 2002 at the Bloomington campus.

Brandeis police have made only one liquor-related arrest in each of the past four years. At only .03 percent of the total undergraduate population, this number is starkly lower than Indiana's arrest count.

As far as alcohol-related disciplinary referrals, however, Brandeis is fairly consistent with Indiana: 3.1 percent of undergraduates in 2001 (96 students).

Closer to home than Indiana, at Boston University, campus police arrested .28 percent of the school's 16,000 undergraduates for liquor law violations in 2001 (45 students) and filed alcohol-related disciplinary referrals for 3.0 percent of students (477 students).

"It's not like we go to parties every Friday night in the dorms. That's not happening," said Captain Robert Molloy of the BU Police Department. He added, though, that when police do receive a noise complaint about a party, they will break up the party but only after several warnings. Molloy said that a report is filed and that the next day "the detectives may work on figuring out where the alcohol came from, who served underage drinkers." Officers also record the names of all students present at the party, and send that information to the dean's office.

Molloy said that during freshman orientation, he and others emphasize the fact that BU has a zero tolerance policy. "If you choose to not act responsibly, be prepared that you will possibly face an arrest ... you will have a criminal record."

These arrests do not generally take place at parties. Molloy said that his officers "actively drive out there and look for youth in possession of alcohol," and receive referrals from plain-clothed officers in the Boston city force who spot suspect students on the street, and test their blood alcohol level with breathalyzers.

At Harvard, Steven Catalono of the Harvard University Police Department, spoke of a slightly different outlook, perhaps more similar to Callahan's approach: "We could arrest anytime, anyplace, anywhere - but that isn't always the best solution ... Making an arrest is sometimes an easy way out."

In line with Catalono's statement, HUPD records show relatively few liquor-related arrests: approximately .11 percent of 6,600 undergraduates were arrested for liquor law violations in 2001 (7 students).

"I've been here three-and-a-half years and I don't believe any Harvard student has been arrested just for being at a party," Catalono said. "If you bring attention to yourself, we're going to deal with it. It's about quality of life. Not everyone wants to live in a party animal house."

Though he said that certain levels of noise may be appropriate on a weekend night, if a party starts up after a Monday night football game, "that is not appropriate."

Catalono said that if police enter a campus party, they "try to do it in coordination with the house administration" (an adult resident of the given dorm that is similar to a Brandeis quad director).

"If there's nothing illegal going on, as long as they quiet down ... they can still be in their room," Catalono said.

He mentioned that Harvard police generally "don't do pro-active patrolling of dorms." Brandeis police, though, Callahan said, may perform general rounds based on the location of registered parties.

At Boston College, according Jack Dunn, spokesman from the BC public relations department, police called to a party check IDs of all students present. Dunn outlined BC's zero tolerance policy, enacted about three years ago.

"The Scott Kruger death at MIT galvanized local universities to combat underage drinking," said Dunn in reference to the MIT student who died of alcohol poisoning in 1998 while pledging a fraternity.

At BC, if students under 21 are caught drinking, they first receive a warning. Their parents and the dean are notified. Upon a second offense, they become at risk for losing campus housing, and upon a third offense, they face possible expulsion.

"The degree of enforcement on various college campuses varies," Dunn said. "Our experience has been that those institutions that are strictest in their enforcement usually have the best results in combating the problem."



Behind the scenes

Despite the aims and beliefs of campus officials, students have the inside view; they throw the parties and they attend the parties.

According to Meredith Bogdas '04, whose boyfriend is a senior at BC, Dunn's statements do not quite reflect reality.

"Campus police have never really been involved in any of the on-campus parties I went to at BC."

If a party is broken up, she said, usually the RAs do it without the involvement of campus police.

"I guess the main difference is there is more anxiety about the police coming and busting up a Brandeis party than there is at BC," Bogdas said.

She recounted a recent party at BC. It was right before a football game, she said, and everyone was "outside drinking and barbecuing ... in front of the cops, no big deal."

The party took place in senior housing much like the Brandeis Mods, said Bogdas. So even though the cops did "eventually come around and check IDs," most people were at least 21. "And at that point most people had done their drinking."

Bogdas, who is under 21, said she could easily have drunk if she wanted to but chose to refrain. Her boyfriend and his under-21 friends "had no qualms" about drinking, she said, and even told her she was being "silly." "I guess it was the Brandeis in me that got me nervous about getting caught," she said.

"The most poignant distinction," she continued, is that "the cops at BC recognize BC as a party school. And the kids realize that too, so nobody worries about their parties getting broken up."

The same holds true at Indiana, according to Charles Karpiuk, Indiana class of '07. He has been at Indiana for almost a month, and his only encounter with the campus police so far was at a party in off-campus apartments. He estimated that about 150 to 200 students were present, and most, including Karpiuk, ran away when the cops came.

"But there were plenty of parties elsewhere in the same apartment complex," he said. "And the keg was just put into the apartment and never seen off again ... we went back there later in the night."

Fraternity parties have a built-in cop prevention system, Karpiuk explained. If a fraternity party is especially loud, the Interfraternal Council (IFC), a group of students who are fraternity and sorority members themselves, knock on the frat house's door, and issue a five minute warning.

During these five minutes, called a "lockdown" according to Karpiuk, "everybody has to throw away their beer ... and the really drunk people are put into rooms ... nobody goes out or in to keep things calm." If the IFC finds alcohol upon entering, they can then call the cops. Otherwise, the party resumes.

The police cannot just come to a party unless a certain fraternity is on "serious probation," said Karpiuk.

The IFC often come to the same frat house twice in one night, he said, but do not dampen the party scene at all. "The IFC are just a minor inconvenience, if you think about it," he added. "They just make sure the party is under control and nobody's going to get killed ... so if it's not under control, the cops can make sure it is."

The IU first-year student mentioned that though police are not a threat at parties, officers do "go after people on the street who are drunk ... the bike cops especially - they go right up to people and make them breathalyze."



The impact of fraternities

Fraternity houses are much larger than any dorm at Brandeis. Thus a party in a Ziv suite fills up much faster than a frat party. Though this constraint may result in more overcrowded parties and more calls to campus police, Callahan said that in his view, Brandeis is "very fortunate that we do not have fraternities." With fraternities, he added, "the potential for liability concerns is (larger)." He mentioned cases of assault, injury and even death.

Dunn spoke similarly about BC's lack of Greek life. The "general impression," he said, "is that fraternities add to the culture of drinking."

Julia Crantz '06 suggested that Brandeis officially recognize the fraternities that exist on nearby off-campus streets. "Because of the fact that the frats aren't through Brandeis, they can't be regulated by Brandeis. If they were recognized, they could be regulated."

Callahan said he is opposed to this idea. "The university stance has always been that fraternities are discriminatory. That is against the Brandeis philosophy," he said. "Why would we want to regulate something that discriminates?"



High expectations

"Obviously the University has a responsibility to its constituents," said Callahan. "You can't just let everybody rampantly drink."

Additionally, he said, "there is a certain element of locus parentis. The parents are trusting the University."

Callahan said much of the perceived strictness at Brandeis may come from the students themselves, whom he said are "more conservative and refined" than the average American college student.

Most Brandeis students, Callahan said, "don't tolerate people falling down drunk or throwing up or urinating on themselves." So maybe, he added, Brandeis students are more likely to call campus police than students at other schools.

"The bottom line is that people came to Brandeis to be part of a community," Callahan said. "I think things are more sensitive with a smaller community - which is part of why people those to come here in the first place.