By Ben Carlson

Staff Writer

As the Chronicle recently reported, CSUSM has again been recognized as the safest four-year university in California by Stateuniversity.com.

Of course, the inclination to congratulate ourselves for being the kindest, sweetest and most open-minded students and professors in California is tempting, but there’s always credit that must be given to the men and women of the UPD and Chief of Police Robert G. McManus.

So what have these peacemakers been up to? Apparently, they’ve been doing an outstanding job, but what about the details?

When asking McManus whether the UPD is shy when it comes to releasing crime reports, he replied, “Communication between UPD and the student body is sometimes mishandled,” and that they “take caution” when proceeding to give out information. “Being careful about proceedings” as McManus put it, is essential in avoiding miscommunication.

Police reports:

According to McManus, “a typical week on CSUSM consists of DUI reports and noise complaints,” with over 50 percent being from non-students. He then proceeded to list off three or four alcohol violations, only one of which was from a CSUSM student from this past week. The 21-year-old male student was caught at 2 a.m. wandering aimlessly in the middle of a street adjacent to campus.

Alcohol on campus:

Alcohol, it seems, is still a topic of importance to the UPD and is perhaps one of the most crucial factors in maintaining the No.1 spot on the list of safest universities in California.

The Chronicle recently highlighted opinions by our editors on whether the campus should remain a dry campus or, pardon the expression, get wet. In rebuttal, “there is an inherent downside to alcohol,” McManus said. “The CSUSM campus is relatively quiet compared to SDSU or UCSD.”

So while CSUSM remains the safest and possibly friendliest university in California, Chief McManus supports the continuation of a dry campus to maintain as much peace as possible. There may always be an occasional inebriated student wandering around, but according to the UPD, for CSUSM to remain peaceful, it must remain dry as well.