Residence Hall | Photo by Qussai Takuri | The Wright State Guardian
As the global pandemic wanes and students start to return to campus housing, drug offenses begin to rise closer to pre-pandemic numbers.
WSU drug violation data
According to the 2021 campus security report, published in October, a total of 22 drug law violations occurred on the Dayton campus in 2019, with one of these ending in an arrest. In 2020 no drug law violations were reported.
| Student Conduct | Arrests | Total | |
| 2018 | 26 | 12 | 38 |
| 2019 | 21 | 1 | 22 |
| 2021/2022 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
For the current 2021/2022 academic year a total of eight drug offenses were reported according to weekly campus crime logs.
WSU police response
According to WSU Chief of Police Kurt Holden, these incidents were all marijuana-related. He went on to explain that the increase in incidents was expected given the increased number of residential students.
“(It is) pretty typical and nothing that I’m too concerned about right now,” Holden said.
All drug offenses took place in residential buildings.
Student conduct
According to Holden, all students who violate drug policies are referred to the Office of Student Conduct.
The office then judges each case to see what disciplinary action, if any, should be used according to Christopher Hogan, director of the Office of Student Conduct. He did not disclose how many students have been disciplined this academic year.
“I’m not able to confirm or deny how many students have been held responsible,” Hogan said.
Like Holden, Hogan agrees that these case numbers are not unusual for the university.
Comparing schools
WSU’s numbers are comparable to other mid-size universities in Ohio like Bowling Green State University.
BGSU’s 60-day crime log for Jan. 21 to March 21 showed two drug violations, six drug suspicions and four drug possession cases, totaling 12 drug-related incidents.
A difference between WSU and BGSU is enrollment numbers. BGSU has over 19,102 students across two campuses while WSU only has 10,604 as of spring 2022.
Six thousand of BGSU’s students are residential students. About 88% of WSU’s students are commuter students.
According to Dan Bertsos, director of residence life and housing, 1,183 students lived in main campus housing during fall 2019. This number drops to 1,465 students in fall 2021. 2022 numbers will not be available until fall 2022.
All WSU drug offenses took place in residential buildings.
