At a time when the Student Activities Center has come under increased scrutiny over gross violations of student conduct, campus police is currently exploring solutions to the situation.

“I’ve been aware of some problems that we have over in the activities center with language and some illegal use of alcohol and drugs in the area and it’s an on-and-off again problem,” Sgt. Kirk Johnston said, noting that the activities center is the one place on campus with the most problems in regard to disruptive and illegal behavior.

The center is one of the few places on campus where students may assemble to play games and music without worrying about disrupting classes.

Despite numerous postings of the student standards of conduct, many students find the area to be notorious for drugs and physical, verbal, and sexual harassment.

“There’s a lot of drugs and drama around here,” Angel Sztuka,18, nursing major, said. “I know they ignore alcohol problems because I see it here every day.”

Sztuka believes that there is not enough enforcement on the part of the police department, but acknowledges that the police cannot see everything.

Many times the situations that result in a police response subside by the time officers arrive on the scene, Sztuka and Johnston agreed.

“Sometimes the police come for verbal fights but I’ve seen physical fights where the cops will come but they’ll overlook it because the kids will stop and act all buddy-buddy like they were play fighting,” Sztuka said.

Johnston believes that an effective way to curb illegal activity at the center is to increase police presence and to hire a supervisor for the center who would monitor the situation and aid the police in identifying students who cause problems.

Other possible solutions include security camera surveillance and a police substation inside the center, he said.

“The activity center today is not as bad as it was years ago, but I think that today it is still unacceptable but it’s still better than it was in the past when it got bad enough where we had to shut it down,” he said.

In the coming weeks, Johnston hopes to work closely with student government and Harold Taylor, dean of student development, to come up with a “game plan” and get students to take ownership in finding a solution.

“I think that by getting the different organizations on campus together, we can work together to make it even better,” he said. “We need people to report things when they see activity that they perceive to be illegal.”