Published 2012-09-04T21:06:00Z”/>

Allison Weeks

Last semester saw a sizable spike in some residence hall violations, according to a report released by University Housing and Food Service.

The report, which was submitted to the university administration July 13, shows violations of UHFS policy for the 2011-2012 academic year in comparison to the last seven years.

Alcohol citations, noise complaints and defiance of resident advisers showed the largest numerical increases over the previous year, according to the report.

Citations given for alcohol violations jumped to 182 incidences, up from 94 in the previous year. Noise complaints went from 111 in the 2010-2011 school year to 270 in the 2011-2012 school year. Instances of non-compliance, a category that describes defiance of residence hall authority, increased from nine to 31.

The increase in noise complaints was mostly attributable to behavior of residents on two floors, UHFS Director David Stephen said.

The number of violations reported each year is the result of several factors, including behavior of residents, diligence of staff in reporting behavior violations and combinations of isolated incidents, Stephen said.

Every violation category showed increases ranging from 12 to 200 percent over the 2010-2011 school year, but Stephen said that the percentages didn’t accurately reflect the number of violations in some cases.

Copyright violation was up 200 percent, but only because the amount of violations increased from two instances in 2010-2011 to six instances in 2011-2012, according to the report. Similarly, drug violations increased 64 percent, but there were only 13 more incidents reported last year than in the previous one.

In addition, almost every violation category has dramatically decreased since the 2004-2005 school year, which Stephen attributes to more rigorous conduct standards for students, he said.

Under the standards implemented near the beginning of Stephen’s tenure in 2003, students were kicked out of the dorms if they receive a single drug citation or two alcohol violations, Stephen said.

Students are still required to pay for their residence hall rooms if they are kicked out for conduct violations.

Sixty-four students were thrown out of UHFS housing in the 2011-2012 school year, a 137 percent increase over the 2010-2011 school year, according to the report.

The report also noted that the large majority of students in Chico State residence halls surveyed last year thought the food in Sutter Residential Dining Center was average or above average, with 37 percent of people surveyed describing the food as “below average.”

Twenty-one percent described the food as excellent, and about 46 percent of University Village residents said they were pleased with the food.

However, negative opinions from the survey were reflected in the reactions of residents eating at Sutter Dining, said Hannah Bottenfield, a former Sutter Dining server and senior anthropology major.

“I could tell no one liked the food when I served them,” she said.

About half of the people surveyed from residence halls described the service as excellent and about 67 percent said they loved Sutter Dining’s atmosphere, according to the report.

About 43 percent of on-campus residents described prices at Sutter Dining as poor, and about 40 percent of University Village students agreed.

The food at Sutter Residential Dining is not worth the money that students have to pay to eat there, senior health science education major Alejandra Menjivar said.

UHFS instituted the “flex cash” system with meal plans in response to the report, which gives students cash to spend at other food stores on the Chico State campus, Stephen said.

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<strong>Allison Weeks can be reached at </strong><a href=”mailto:[email protected]”><em>[email protected]</em></a>