{"id":1491,"date":"2014-11-06T23:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T04:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=1491"},"modified":"2014-11-06T23:00:39","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T04:00:39","slug":"an-investigation-into-where-citation-money-goes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2014\/11\/06\/an-investigation-into-where-citation-money-goes\/","title":{"rendered":"An Investigation into where Citation Money goes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JOHN WYATT –\u00a0NEWS SECTION EDITOR<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The concept of citations is one that each Centre student learns about during orientation week. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The College, typically through the Department of Public Safety (DPS), issues citations as a means to deter students from any behavior that might break college policy. Different citations come with different fees, depending upon what policy they broke. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is confusion among students surrounding where money goes to, and how the College deteremines the monetary amounts behind various citations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll fines collected go back to the College\u2019s general fund [officially an account called the Disciplinary Funds]. If vandalism occurs, for example, it\u2019s the general fund that pays for the repairs. If a student is found responsible for vandalism, they pay for the damage and any associated fines\/rewards (again, as set by the Student Government Association (SGA) and as described in the Student Handbook),\u201d Vice President and Dean of Student Life (SLO) Randy Hays said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis money is used for general operations for the college as one of several miscellaneous acounts that all go towards funding the \u2018bottom line.\u2019 So far this semester, the Disciplinary Funds account totals $1,950, with fines ranging from $25 to $200,\u201d Assistant Controller in the Finance Office Scott Ownes said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNone of that money comes back to DPS,\u201d Department of Public Safety Officer Rubin Mosley said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the College set the monetary amounts for fines several years ago, occasional updates occur under the collaboration of Hays, the SLO, DPS, SGA, and\/or Student Judiciary. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Usually, the College revists monetary amounts for citations if the fines don\u2019t show any signs of detering students. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf after a while we determine the fine has no impact, especially if it\u2019s a major saftey issue and students are simply willing to pay the fine instead of complying with policy, then we will go and sit down with Student Life and SGA and come up with a new solution, in some cases that means raising the fine,\u201d Director of Department of Public Safety Gary Bugg said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One example Bugg gave of raising a fine occurred several years ago, before the current Campus Center was built.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a big problem of students sneaking on to the roofs of buildings or breaking into buildings after hours. There were a lot of students that would sneak up on to the roof of the old Cowan building, and in some cases even riding their bicycles around,\u201d Bugg said. \u201cSo we approached SGA and asked they raise the fine to $500 [the current fine today] to provide a major deterent. We saw a dramatic decline in the number of citations for that issue.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A more recent example is when SGA and the SLO were discussing the citation policy for dorm parties. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a recent example of where we [DPS] had a lot of input in,\u201d Bugg said. \u201cWe did a lot of work around the old policy to make it fair to everyone involved, but to also put some pressure and responsibility on the hosts to deter them in the future. We try to remain concious of what\u2019 fair to the student, but also to balance what is in the best interest of public saftey as well.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While DPS has input on citations and fines, ultimately all changes must go through SGA and the SLO. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of fines (\u201cin sheer number,\u201d according to Bugg) typically come from original containers of alcoholic beverages. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTypically there are three to four citations per party night,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cWith the new citation policy for dorm parties, that one has become the largest in terms of money being paid,\u201d Bugg said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The citation system works as a deterrent against certain behaviors, but it is not the only thing that is used by the college, especially when it comes to issues involving alcohol. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The College utilizes alcohol education programs, alcohol assessments with a counselor, meetings with a professional staff member, and the occasional call home to parents. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, we worked with SGA on defining alcohol citations for students and what happens to them after they\u2019ve been cited, and through that discussion we came up with the Good Samaritan and Medical Amnesty Policy,\u201d Bugg said. \u201cIn that case, the fine was actually decreased, or completely negated, since under the Medical Amnesty policy you don\u2019t receive any fine. That\u2019s just one way where we try to find solutions besides raising fines to deter students.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These conversations are an ongoing process on the part of SGA, the SLO, and DPS in an effort to constantly assess the effectiveness of various fines and citations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest concern as of right now is the abuse of alcohol, so we are always talking about ways to combat that,\u201d Bugg said. \u201cAt one point we talked about citing not only hosts for room parties, but any individuals in the rooms as well. But we found out that that created more issues than it solved: Officers had trouble controlling traffic in and out of the room, tensions would grow as students were asked to wait, and sometimes we even had students jumping out of windows to avoid getting cited. Obviously, we decided to scrap that plan.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that the citation system provides a strong deterrent \u2013 in the sense that I hope folks have better things to spend $50 on than the privilege of walking around with an open can of beer (which I might add I can\u2019t do as a 50-year old man in the town of Danville without risking being arrested.),\u201d Hays said. \u201cFrom what I hear from other Deans at similar schools, we have fewer problems with vandalism\/poor behavior at Centre than most. That said, one problem is one too many\u2014\u2018cause we\u2019re better than that.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JOHN WYATT –\u00a0NEWS SECTION EDITOR The concept of citations is one that each Centre student learns about during orientation week. The College, typically through the Department of Public Safety (DPS), issues citations as a means to deter students from any behavior that might break college policy. Different citations come with different fees, depending upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}