Weekend calmer, police say
CMU Police Officer Bill Martinez said Homecoming 2003 proved calmer than last year.
Martinez estimated there were a total of 20 alcohol-related offenses, without any drunk-driving citations throughout the weekend.
CMU Police Chief Stan Dinius said Homecoming on campus was going well until a fight broke out in front of the Student Activity Center at about 12:52 a.m. Sunday.
“We had at least two fights, maybe more, going on and we were able to investigate and determine there was one individual to arrest,” he said.
Martinez said a 22-year-old Mount Pleasant man was uncooperative and was charged with disturbing the peace.
“We don’t know that anyone went to the hospital at this time, but we are still trying to determine who was all involved,” Dinius said.
The man was leaving a Homecoming dance hosted by social fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, which had to be shut down.
Tom Idema, assistant director of Student Life, said he is unsure of repercussions that could come of the situation.
“It all depends on exactly what happened,” he said. “It varies and we’ll just have to investigate and find out what did happen.”
Once the facts of the incident have been determined, Idema said the student code of conduct will help in deciding how to deal with those involved.
Idema said he did not think there were any incidents with fraternities or sororities during Homecoming last year.
Dinius said despite a large consumption of alcohol, tailgating went smoothly, because in part of the large number of officers on-duty.
There were no arrests made during tailgating activities, compared to three fights and two arrests last year.
According to Central Michigan Life reports, six miscellaneous alcohol-related offenses occurred during last year’s tailgating events.
“It’s always a problem when you get several thousand people drinking in parking lots, but no one was arrested,” he said. “We did write some minor-in-possession tickets but no one was lodged from the tailgate area.”
Martinez said it is mandatory for every officer to work the football games. Fourteen officers and three sergeants worked the tailgating area.
“Anytime you deal with people who are drinking large amounts of alcohol they are going to be less cooperative,” Dinius said. “But it wasn’t too bad, but they were drunk and it was awhile before we got them to clear the area.”
Martinez said the campus police department had at least eight officers patrolling at night, including patrol from the city and county police departments.
