After at least a decade-long incline, the number of alcohol-related arrests reported at Binghamton University took a nosedive last year, according to recently published statistics.

Police made just one on-campus arrest for liquor-law violations in 1994, according to past BU student handbooks, which annually publish the previous three years’ worth of crime statistics. By 2004, that number had increased to 22.

But the 2006-2007 student handbook, published in August, reported that the number of arrests was cut in half to 11 in 2005.

Similarly, after an increase, the number of liquor-related on-campus disciplinary actions and judicial referrals dropped from 266 to 158.

Despite the closing of the campus pub in 1998, the number of alcohol-related arrests continued its upward trend, increasing nearly threefold for the next five years, with one dip in 2002. But after the implementation of an Alcohol Task Force to study alcohol policy on campus in 2003, the trend reversed, as the number of arrests took its biggest plummet in a decade.

Rodger Summers, BU’s outgoing vice president for student affairs, spearheaded the Task Force, which was an extension of a SUNY-wide initiative to curb what it perceived as problems with alcohol. The task force also recommended and oversaw changes to existing programs and policies.

The Task Force initiated “Think About It,” a program which focused on studying alcohol related issues. Additionally, the task force also spurred prohibition of alcohol at both Homecoming and Spring Fling. It also implemented Alcohol.edu, an online course for incoming freshmen, in fall 2005.

But since the crime statistics represent the calendar year, rather than the academic year, the effect of the Alcohol.edu course on the statistics is inconclusive until 2006’s statistics are published. Other factors that contribute to the numbers include how often crimes incidents are reported; the statistics reflect incident reports from any institutional official with substantial responsibility for campus and student activities, which even includes resident assistants.

The crime statistics in the annual handbook are published under compliance to the The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy. Also known as the Clery Act, the law, enacted by Congress in 1990, requires postsecondary institutions that participate in federal student aid programs to uniformly disclose information about crime on and around their campuses.

In addition to posting annual statistics, the act requires institutions to publish security policies and issue timely crime warnings.

Binghamton’s New York State University Police department fulfills another Clery requirement: a public crime log. “We got no secrets here,” said Timothy Faughnan, Deputy Chief of Campus Police.

Crime under a Clery report is defined in accordance with definitions from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook, instead of state standards. Consequently, authorities that deal with America’s young adults are using statistics to draw trends and single out problems that dominate campus crime.

“We have a better sense of the extent of the [campus] crime since the Clery Act,” said Brett A. Sokolow, founder and president of The National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, a consulting firm. “We know what’s going on better.”

“Clery helps,” said Faughnan, who supervises BU’s uniform patrol force and investigation bureau. “Anytime you put data together in a chart or graph, trends come out and jump at you,” he said.

But Faughnan doesn’t wait for the annual publishing of the report, which includes data from Judicial Affairs and other non-police incident reports.

“We’re constantly aware of everyday trends,” he said. “We’re reading police reports every single day.”

The police department publishes its own crime incident report according to New York State laws. In 2003, 2004 and 2005, the number of DWI’s went from 10 to 21 to 11, respectively.

Despite their differences, the purpose of the department’s statistics and the Clery Act rest upon one common thread: to promote awareness.

“You should be concerned with what’s going on in your community,” said Faughnan. “It’s good to be aware of your surroundings, your community, of crime statistics.”