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By Diane Heldt
The Gazette
IOWA CITY — Male student athletes at the University of Iowa had lower rates of arrest and citation than members of UI fraternities every year for the past five years.
The arrest and citation rate in Iowa City of male athletes during the 2008-09 academic year — 10.5 percent — was nearly the same as the rate for male students living in residence halls, 10.1 percent.
Overall, 8.3 percent of the UI’s male undergraduates were charged with one or more non-traffic criminal offenses in Iowa City from Aug. 1, 2008 through May 20, 2009, according to figures gathered by the UI Student Services office. That’s compared to 5.5 percent of the overall undergraduate population, and 4 percent of the total UI student body.
The figures show that while there has been a rash of high-profile incidents in recent months involving male student athletes, they are not the group with the highest arrest rate in Iowa City.
“The perception is that everything is running rampant here. It just appears that way based upon some of the incidents and the high visibility,” Fred Mims, associate athletics director, said. “But we’re dealing with normal student issues in some ways.”
In the last academic year, 1,194 UI students were charged with one or more non-traffic criminal offenses in Iowa City. The research looks at specific crimes, therefore not all citations are listed and the data should not be considered a complete picture, Associate Dean of Students Tom Baker said. It also only tracks student charges in Iowa City.
Of the 1,504 charges in the tracked categories, 75 percent were alcohol-related, such as public intoxication and underage drinking. Thirteen percent were drug related.
UI officials have gathered the data since 1990 to track trends, especially related to undergraduate students and alcohol violations, Baker said.
“That continues to be a major concern for us,” he said. “We publicize this information among the students to help them realize good citizenship is important and to encourage them to follow the laws.”
Male undergraduates had more than double the rate of violations than female undergrads — 8.3 percent versus 3 percent.
Fraternity members were the group with the highest charge rate, at 15.1 percent, followed by male athletes at 10.5 percent and male residence hall dwellers at 10.1 percent.
Sorority members had a charge rate of 5.7 percent, the highest among female groups.
The Iowa City police wrote more than two-thirds of the charges, with 28 percent coming from the UI Police.
