span style="font-family:arial;"biJuly 24, 2009, 10:00 a.m./i/bbr /br /centerbPolice Toss Bar Closing Recommendation to Council;br /Loh Talking Tough/bbr /(brought to you by a href="http://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/"FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com/a*)/centerbr /Iowa City Police Chief Sam Hargadine has made a radical proposal to the City Council: don't continue to grant liquor licenses to bars that consistently flout the law. What a concept!br /br /It will be a real test for the City Council next Tuesday evening. Are they willing to really stand up to the politically and economically powerful Iowa City alcohol industry? a href="http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090724/NEWS01/907240314amp;s=damp;page=2#pluckcomments"Rob Daniel, "Police: No liquor license for 2 bars; Council to vote Tuesday on The Fieldhouse and Etc.,"/a iIowa City Press-Citizen/i, July 24, 2009.br /br /Meanwhile, UI's Provost Wallace Loh is also talking a little tougher.br /br /blockquoteHe [Loh] wants action.br /br /“It’s trial and error, experiment,” he said. “Let’s do things — let’s stop studying it.” “This problem has been studied to death,” he said. “There are hundreds and hundreds of articles with recommendations. What there is very little of is people taking action.”br /br /So the partnership focuses its energies on specific, concrete ideas for gradually changing the culture, he said.br /br /The UI is stepping up with police overtime on downtown patrol, beefing up alcohol safety education training for freshmen and offering even more intensive training to at risk groups.br /br /They plan better communication with parents and cooperation with bar owners. They’ll schedule more Friday classes and fund more alternative activities, he said.br /br /Loh’s goal: fewer alcohol-related emergency room admissions. A drop in blood alcohol levels, reduced incidents of alcohol-related assaults, fewer dropouts and more./blockquotea href="http://cedarrapidsgazette.ussrv06.newsmemory.com/default.php?token=373290041970859"Jennifer Hemmingsen, "Attitude Change on UI Drinking on Horizon?"/a iThe Gazette/i, July 18, 2009, p. A4.br /br /Although the test is "what happens next"? there's some reassurance in Hemmingsen's story and quotes. Perhaps most impressive to me is Provost Loh's reference to some metrics for measuring "success": alcohol-related dropouts and emergency room admissions, and blood alcohol levels in students arrested and tested.br /br /There's really no substitute for the business adage "you get what you measure."br /br /Speaking of which, what are we to make of the statistics regarding student arrests?br /br /The iGazette/i recently headlined, "Athletes Not Most-Arrested Group." (Fraternity boys are.)br /br /Might it have been more relevant/meaningful to look at some of the sports (and, presumably, fraternities) separately? Is it possible that the percentage of football players who get in trouble exceeds the percentages for members of the UI's teams in, say, cross country, golf, rowing, swimming, tennis, track and volleyball? Is it possible that some fraternities contribute a disproportionate number of fraternity members' arrests?br /br /Here's how the iGazette/i presented the numbers:br /br /blockquoteMale student-athletes at the University of Iowa have had lower rates of arrest and citation than members of UI fraternities every year for the past five years, according to UI figures. . . .br /br /Male athletes’ arrest and citation rates in Iowa City during the 2008-09 academic year — 10.5 percent — were nearly the same as those for male students living in residence halls — 10.1 percent. Fraternity members tallied the highest charge rate, at 15.1 percent. . . .br /br /That compares with . . . 4 percent of the total UI student body. . . .br /Of the 1,504 charges in the categories that were tracked, 75 percent were alcohol related . . ../blockquoteDiane Heldt, "Athletes not most-arrested UI group; Fraternity members’ rates higher, though athletes get attention," iThe Gazette/i, July 11, 2009, p. A1. And see, Editorial, "Hook students on positive activities," iThe Gazette/i, July 16, 2009, p. A4 ("Of the 1,504 criminal charges . . . 75 percent were alcohol related. . . . Yet another reminder of the UI’s struggles with alcohol. . . . [A] 2006 survey . . ., 'Research on Iowa Student Experiences,' found that binge drinking was lower among students who participated in . . . student organizations, honors programs and research projects with faculty. . . . Only students can choose to engage in positive, educationally purposeful activities. But the easier the UI can make that choice, the better.")br /br /-- More to come --br /br //spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30130444-903357790276825123?l=fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com'//div
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