1… 2… 3… MIPs
As students of the University of Arizona, we have all become accustomed to the tradition of Syllabus Week and all the craziness that goes along with it.
The 50-minute classes seem to drone on for hours as students doze off while listening to the new professors repeat the same things, and then at night students partake in their versions of letting loose. A lot of these nights end the same way for most students, but some aren’t so lucky in making it home unscathed when they let a little too loose.
On Jan. 16 an officer spotted four females outside of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity house that caught his attention. One female was being held up by a Wild West security guard and the three females accompanying her fell to the ground when they made it to the sidewalk. The officer approached the females, who mostly cooperated except for one who ran away when she spotted the officer.
While producing their identification for the officer, one female accidentally showed the officer another ID before eventually giving him her real one. The officer asked for the other ID and ran it, to which he shockingly discovered was invalid.
The officer continued to interview them. He observed they were heavily intoxicated by their glassy eyes, slurred speech, inability to remember the questions they were repeatedly asking the officer and their inability to “control their emotions.” He stated that he did not interview them on their alcohol intoxication “due to their level of ingestion.”
The boyfriend of one of the females arrived and confirmed he would take them all home and watch them, but not before the officer gave all three girls minor in possession charges through the Dean of Students diversion program and confiscated the one female’s fake ID.
Tag, You’re It
Whether you like the fraternities or not, it’s more than likely that you’ve been to a fraternity party and are well aware of their presence on campus.
Most people are aware of these fraternity parties getting shut down, but many are not likely aware of the red tags that were placed on the Pi Kappa Alpha and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity houses for unruly gatherings on the same night in late September. These red tags restrict the fraternities’ ability to host parties and were both scheduled to be removed in March of 2020.
One red tag wasn’t going to slow these fraternities down, but two might.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 17, a University of Arizona Police Department officer was flagged down by the Tucson Police Department to assist in shutting down a fraternity party at Pi Kappa Alpha for a noise complaint. The officer said he could hear loud music coming from the house from as far as two blocks away and then much louder from the courtyard.
When he arrived on scene, he also saw laser lights shining from the stage. He also stated that there were two generators on the lawn that were making a considerable amount of noise. The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity was issued an additional red tag that night.
In the late hours of Jan. 17, an officer was flagged down to assist in shutting down another party right next door at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house after receiving a noise complaint. The fraternity’s risk manager had been notified earlier in the night that if another noise complaint was received, they would be issued a second red tag as well.
Since 200-300 people were exiting the party, the officers spoke with three executive members of the fraternity and asked to speak with the president, who they claimed was at the library. The president arrived and said he had been at the library “but he did not have a backpack and was wearing a wristband from the party.”
The security guards informed the officers that only residents of the house and girlfriends were left inside, to which the UAPD officer instructed to remove all non-residents. About 150 more people exited the house. The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house was issued an additional red tag and the executive members and fraternity were cited for an unruly gathering.
JackPOT
Not all university students’ idea of letting loose involves alcohol. On Jan. 18 officers were dispatched to Coronado Residence Hall after a residence assistant had called reporting a strong odor of marijuana coming from one of the dorm rooms on the ninth floor.
The officers made contact with the residents of the room who consented for them to enter, to which they immediately could smell a potent odor of marijuana and observed glass pipes and a box of drug paraphernalia.
The two girls who were the occupants of the room admitted that they had been smoking in the room that night, but they usually don’t and that they jointly shared all of the drug paraphernalia.
When asked if there was anything else in the room the officers should know about, one of the girls produced a vape pen with a cannabis oil cartridge in it. The officer informed them that possession of the THC oil was a felony, and if one girl had more ownership than the other then only one would be charged with the felony. They both responded that they equally shared it.
There were over 25 documented items of drug paraphernalia and marijuana found in the room including 8 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of medical-grade marijuana, joints, THC cough drops, a THC oil cartridge, a bong, glass pipes, various brands of rolling papers and other miscellaneous items. Both girls were arrested for possession of a narcotic drug, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and taken to Pima County Jail where felony interims were completed for both girls.
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