Annual Safety Report Shows New Trends in Substance Use and Reporting of Sexual Violence

On Wednesday, Sept. 30, Director of Public Safety (PSafe) Scott Rohde shared the 2025 Annual Safety Report via an all-school email. The report features statistics from the last three years on reported crimes on campus. The 2025 report also includes statistics on hazing incidents, a new requirement by the Clery Act. According to the report, the 2025 calendar year saw a decrease in liquor offenses, an increase in drug offenses, and no reported rape or dating violence incidents. The report also included disclosure of the voyeurism incident in Nicolson from October 2025, although it was not required by the Clery Act. Rohde attributed the increase in drug offenses over the three years to the legalization of marijuana in Connecticut, stressing that most of the drug offenses were marijuana related. While there were 72 judicial referrals in 2025, none of them resulted in arrests, according to the report. “I’m not surprised by that trend because Connecticut has legalized marijuana,” Rohde said. “Essentially, the issue that students need to remember is that [marijuana] is still prohibited on [the University] campus, and that the Connecticut law applies to those over 21. As more states legalize marijuana and as it becomes more socially common, I think we are seeing people who are more comfortable in using it, and this may well be a connection in terms of that trend.” Rohde also stated that alcohol offenses are more prone to year-by-year fluctuations due to factors such as training programs by WesWell and the number of social events. Sharing that there was an increase in offenses during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rohde also believes that the characteristics of a given class year are also a factor in the number of such offenses. “We had some fairly high numbers during COVID when people were pretty secluded,” Rohde said. “I’m hopeful that some of the lower numbers with alcohol have to do with increased programming, better party approval, and management. I would hope that has some impact, but it may be minimal. A lot of it has to do with individual characteristics of a particular class, or how many unregistered social events there are.” An anonymous student also shared their insights into why an increasing number of students are reportedly partaking in drug use on campus. “It’s just expensive to buy alcohol and friends just give out weed and drugs without asking you to pay them back or anything,” they said. “So I feel like it’s just easier to do. It’s also more low-key. You don’t have to go out or plan your whole night around that.” This sentiment is reflected in national data, which shows that as of 2023, daily or near-daily cannabis use is nearly three times that of daily or near-daily alcohol use in young adults aged 19 to 30. In light of Title IX Coordinator Debbie Colucci’s recent departure from the University, Rohde also shared information about PSafe’s relationship with the Title IX Office. Rohde stated that PSafe has not been significantly affected by Colucci’s departure at the time of the interview. “PSafe has a good working relationship with the Title IX Office,” Rohde said. “Our roles, however, are not the same. Many of these issues and complaints go directly to the Title IX Office, and they do not have to flow through PSafe. If we are the recipients of the case, we will address it, triage it…with any immediate safety concerns, document the facts as we know them, and we will make the referral to Title IX. Does [Colucci’s departure] have a significant impact on our work? I would say no because we are prepared. It’s stable, and we have not been asked to take on any role other than our usual.” Rohde emphasized that the statistic in the 2025 report of no reported rape and dating violence incidents did not necessarily mean that these incidents did not occur on campus, but rather that they were not reported. “If they confide this information to someone in health services or in a pastoral care situation like the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, these areas are entitled to strict confidentiality, so we may never learn of them,” Rohde said. “Also, some reports are exclusive to friend groups, and they choose not to want an investigation or involve the University judicial process or the police. The bottom line is, it varies year to year how many people are reporting. It does not mean there were zero [incidents]. It means there was zero reporting.” Students echoed this sentiment by Rohde, sharing that students are often still worried about reporting sexual violence to campus authorities. “I think people are too scared to speak up and are seriously afraid of retaliation and stigma,” Dottie Smith ’29 wrote in a message to The Argus. “This 100% does not mean there weren’t any rapes, just that they went unreported. I think so many incidents happen on campus in a more grey area when it comes to sexual violence. I know people who have felt very uncomfortable and experience traumatic events at parties or during times when they were intoxicated and just because they weren’t a victim of non-consensual penetrative sex, they don’t believe that they were raped or that anything worth reporting happened to them.” The University encourages students who have observed or experienced concerning behavior to report it via the Incident Reporting Form, or directly to Public Safety, Human Resources, or the Dean of Students Office. Akari Ikeda can be reached at aikeda@wesleyan.edu.