Hanover Police made 123 alcohol-related arrests on the Dartmouth campus in 2004, a three-year high, according to a report released last month by Safety and Security that compiled crime statistics for the Dartmouth campus.
Burglaries were also up from 2003, while sexual assault reports stayed constant, the report said.
The 123 alcohol-related incidents topped the annual list of crimes committed on campus. Since New Hampshire passed a possession by consumption law in 2002, allowing underage drinkers caught with a blood alcohol content of 0.02 or higher to be arrested for possession of alcohol, arrests have skyrocketed, College Proctor Harry Kinne said.
New Hampshire's zero-tolerance policy on underage drinking resulted in a greater number of arrests at Dartmouth than at any other Ivy League school, where, Kinne said, state alcohol laws are not as harsh.
"This statistic was not alarmingly high when compared against other New Hampshire colleges where the possession by consumption law is applicable," Kinne said.
Some arrests involved students who were treated for alcohol poisoning at local hospitals and then arrested by Hanover Police.
Not all of the alcohol-related arrests reported in 2004 involved Dartmouth students, however. Visitors from other schools and local residents accounted for a small number of the arrests.
In 2004, Safety and Security reported 286 other alcohol-related incidents that were handled internally by the College, slightly up from 275 in 2003.
The report indicated that more burglaries occurred in 2004. The number of incidents rose by seven to 43 last year. Thirty-five burglaries took place in residential facilities.
Although 90 percent of these incidents resulted from students not locking their dorm rooms, Kinne said, other burglaries involved forced entry attempts that resulted in minor property damage, and a handful of incidents that constituted forced entry and theft.
Eight sexual assaults were also reported in 2004, a number Kinne said he considered deceptively low.
"Sexual assaults are tremendously under-reported in the United States as well as on college campuses," Kinne said.
Dartmouth reported a slightly higher number of sexual assaults than its Ivy League counterparts Brown and Princeton Universities.
But the higher number may also indicate that Dartmouth students feel more comfortable reporting incidents of sexual assault than students at other schools where similar events might go unreported, Kinne said.
Dartmouth reported no incidents of murder, manslaughter or weapons possession violations last year. There were also no reports of motor vehicle thefts in 2004. Armed assaults have been rare in the past three years.
The Clery Act mandates that crime data be made public at every college that receives federal funds.
