By Michael Freeman, Managing Editor
Trace amounts of marijuana were found in a McKinzie Hall residence room Jan. 20, but the ACU Police Department did not press criminal charges because so little was found.
A resident assistant discovered flakes of marijuana in a trash can while conducting a room check and subsequently filed a report to the ACU Police Department at 12:41 a.m. Officers investigated the scene and confiscated the marijuana, which totaled to less than one gram.
The students living in the room were not present at the time of the investigation. Because the evidence was not a usable amount and nobody could be affirmatively linked to the marijuana, no criminal charges were filed; however, the Office of Judicial Affairs is conducting an investigation to see if a policy violation was committed.
“While it may not be a criminal offense that can be filed because of the residual amounts and no one being present, it’s still conceivably a policy violation that the university would pursue,” said Jimmy Ellison, chief of the ACU Police Department. “The presence of any amount of drugs or contraband on campus is still a policy violation.”
Violations of the university drug policy qualify as category three violations, according the drug policy in the 2008-09 Student Handbook. Disciplinary responses to category three violations may include eviction from university housing, loss of scholarships or suspension from the university.
The university philosophy of discipline outlined in the 2008-09 Student Handbook states that the “members of our community are called to a high standard of behavior in order to establish and maintain an environment conducive to learning and personal growth…therefore, community life at ACU is a disciplined life.”
The Office of Judicial Affairs was not available for comment on the incident or the investigation by press time. The office would probably not be able to comment because of student privacy issues, Ellison said.
“From a criminal perspective, nothing is being done because it’s not a fileable case,” Ellison said. “What Student Life is choosing to do with it internally would be a disciplinary matter.”
