Clarke County

Which 5 Georgia universities have the most alcohol violations?

By Sam Sachs, WSBTV.com
By Sam Sachs, WSBTV.com

ATHENS, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News examined Clery Act data from the five largest schools in the state’s university system to learn which ones had the most reported liquor law violations.

Clery Act data is reported to the federal government and requires all campus crime data to be reported to the federal government and remain public.

The University of Georgia is the institution with the most reported liquor law violations over the past three years, among Georgia’s public colleges and universities.

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Among all of the state’s universities, the University of Georgia had the highest amount of violations, totaled from 2020 to 2022, the most recent years available for review. Of the five universities with the largest amount of reported violations, only Georgia Southern University was outside of the metro Atlanta area.

Channel 2′s Christian Jennings was in Athens Friday, where UGS students said they are not surprised. Students said they feel like the university does what it can to curb the issue, but that with all the bars and such an expansive nightlife just steps from campus, it’s hard.

“It does not surprise me,” Conner Thompson said. “Athens is known for its downtown bars being so close to campus.”

A UGA spokesperson said 35% of the violations that were reported were committed by non UGA students He also said the university offers a range of incentives to educate students about alcohol. The program is called Alcohol Edu, an online, mandatory alcohol education for all incoming first-year and transfer students.

The next set of data for Georgia’s universities and colleges will be published on Oct. 1.

From 2020 to 2022, UGA reported nearly 700 liquor law violation referrals, with the Georgia Institute of Technology taking second place all three years.

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While the violations are sources of potential disciplinary action on campus, having high numbers of violation referrals doesn’t mean all of the reports ended in arrests.

However, based on the data, UGA’s number of arrests per year more than doubled each year from 2020 to 2022.

Here’s how the data breaks down among the top five biggest universities in Georgia for those three years, and how many arrests.

  1. UGA - Total from 2020-2022: 689 (193 arrests)
  2. Georgia Tech - Total from 2020-2022: 576 (1 arrest)
  3. Georgia Southern - Total from 2020-2022: 413 (73 arrests)
  4. KSU - Total from 2020-2022: 410 (28 arrests)
  5. GSU - Total from 2020-2022: 275 (9 arrests)

For 2020, here’s how many liquor violation referrals each university had, and how many arrests:

  1. UGA - In 2020: 195 (27 arrests)
  2. Georgia Tech - In 2020: 239 (0 arrests)
  3. KSU - In 2020: 180 (11 arrests)
  4. Georgia Southern - In 2020: 120 (29 arrests)
  5. GSU - In 2020: 90 (3 arrests)

For 2021, here’s how many liquor violation referrals each university had, and how many arrests:

  1. UGA - In 2021: 238 (55 arrests)
  2. Georgia Tech - In 2021: 177 (1 arrest)
  3. Georgia Southern - In 2021: 144 (23 arrests)
  4. KSU - In 2021: 141 (7 arrests)
  5. GSU - In 2021: 87 (5 arrests)

For 2022, here’s how many liquor violation referrals each university had, and how many arrests:

  1. UGA - In 2022: 256 (111 arrests)
  2. Georgia Tech - In 2022: 160 (0 arrests)
  3. Georgia Southern - In 2022: 149 (21 arrests)
  4. GSU - In 2022: 98 (1 arrest)
  5. KSU - In 2022: 89 (10 arrests)

The Clery Act data did not go into detail on what the ages of the students involved were, as far as if the violations involved underage drinking only, or if it focused on any type of violation, such as on dry areas of campus.

The Clery Act is a part of the statutory requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1978, which were added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

UGA responded to this story with the following statement:

“In compliance with the Clery Act, University of Georgia Police enforce liquor law violations that occur within its jurisdiction, defined as the violation of laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession or use of alcoholic beverages.

35 percent of the violations reported under Clery were committed by non-UGA students. We do not take this matter lightly. The university has a wide range of initiatives that educate students about alcohol and promote responsible decision-making. These initiatives include:

· Alcohol Edu, on-line mandatory alcohol education for all incoming first-year and transfer students.

· The John Fontaine, Jr. Center for Alcohol Awareness and Education, which promotes an environment that supports responsible decision-making regarding alcohol and other drug use, on campus and in the community. The center provides a comprehensive range of evidence-based prevention, early intervention and recovery support services to the UGA community.

· A Collegiate Recovery Community for students who have made a commitment to lead sober, healthy lives. The Collegiate Recovery Community provides an environment where students recovering from addiction can find peer support as well as other recovery support services while navigating their own college experience.

· The Student Conduct and Health Promotion mentor program, which promotes student success and persistence by pairing at-risk students with a faculty and/or staff member who assist these students in making progress.

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