The atti­tudes toward alco­hol that stu­dents have upon arriv­ing at Ferris vary greatly, but the pres­ence of drink­ing under­age on a col­lege cam­pus is often an inescapable reality.

For stu­dents who have been caught drink­ing under­age while at school, they are famil­iar with how the penal sys­tem treats this mat­ter, and what the ram­i­fi­ca­tions are of a minor in pos­ses­sion (MIP) ticket.

Ferris’ Department of Public Safety (DPS) Police Chief Marty Bledsoe said that stu­dents need to under­stand that there is more than one side to under­age drinking.

“One thing peo­ple don’t com­pletely under­stand: we talk about MIPs being the crim­i­nal side. There’s also a civil side,” said Bledsoe.

If a stu­dent does some­thing ille­gal or hurts some­one while intox­i­cated, they can also be sued civilly.

“The num­ber one thing is not nec­es­sar­ily the law and not nec­es­sar­ily the Office of Student Conduct, the num­ber one thing is safety,” said Bledsoe.

“Dave,” a stu­dent speak­ing under the con­di­tion of anonymity who has had three such tick­ets, said, “I can’t say don’t drink because that would be hyp­o­crit­i­cal of me, but if you are going to make the deci­sion to drink as a minor, be smart about it.”

MIPs can occur both on cam­pus and off. If caught drink­ing in a res­i­dence hall, the res­i­dent advi­sor or hall direc­tor may choose to keep the issue within the con­fines of the cam­pus, or they may choose to involve law enforce­ment offi­cials beyond cam­pus. The stan­dard result of a first time offense han­dled through the school is a manda­tory online course about alco­hol that comes with a fee of $100.

Kristin Norton, the direc­tor of the Office of Student Conduct, said, “We don’t focus on the num­ber of inci­dents a stu­dent is involved with but instead con­sider the nature of the inci­dent and per­haps the pat­tern of behavior.”

The anony­mous stu­dent said that of his three tick­ets, two of them involved the police on cam­pus, and one off cam­pus. For his first MIP, he paid slightly over $200, but his third one was all the way up to $515, with one year pro­ba­tion and 40 hours of com­mu­nity service.

Bledsoe said the rate of MIPs is down by about a third this year. There have been 186 cases of under­age drink­ing so far this year, as opposed to 278 last year and 397 the year prior, accord­ing to the Office of Student Conduct. He is not sure of the rea­son for this drop, but is glad to see it.

Dave said, “After pay­ing about $2,500 in fines and costs, and now being on pro­ba­tion, it really hasn’t affected my over-21 lifestyle. I still go to the bars and drink as often as I did prior to the MIPs, even though I’m not sup­posed to.”

Dave said he regrets mak­ing poor deci­sions while drink­ing, but the tick­ets have not affected his use of alco­hol. He did, how­ever, say he was treated fairly and he sim­ply had to deal with the con­se­quences of the choices he made.

“I have talked with other stu­dents who have spent time in jail because of a deci­sion they made while intox­i­cated. Some of these deci­sions can impact the rest of their lives. It’s always my hope that stu­dents are well informed about alco­hol, and if they choose to use it, regard­less of their age, they do so safely,” said Norton. n