A University Police officer blocks off the road during an incident at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry building. Credit: Michael Huson | Managing Editor for Content
University Police is seeing an additional boost from alcohol sales at Ohio Stadium.
The revenue generated by alcohol sales at The ’Shoe will be used to pay for four new full-time officers. The annual cost is estimated to be about $600,000, said Office of Administration and Planning spokesman Dan Hedman.
Last year, it was announced that two positions would be added. However, University Police Chief Craig Stone announced at an Undergraduate Student Government meeting last week the number has increased to four.
These new positions will be used year-round by University Police and are not just for game day security.
The Department of Athletics estimated the number of positions it could pay for based on projected sales numbers, and worked with University Police to determine what resources were needed, said Martin Jarmond, deputy athletics director.
“It was a collaborative effort. It speaks to how we operate at the university, said Jarmond. “The collaborative dialogue and conversation that we had was done to see how we could best use the new resources coming in.”
Stone said he was excited to hear that now there will be four police officers “to help us keep (the) campus safe.”
He said the additional officers will increase the engagement of students and officers by increasing the department’s visibility on campus.
“We have over 15,000 students living on campus this semester, which is a 28 percent increase from last year,” Stone said. “More officers makes us more visible to deter crime.”
In addition to supporting the hiring of new police officers, the Department of Athletics will give $50,000 over the next two years to pay for research on alcohol usage to be conducted John Clapp, a professor who oversees OSU’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery.
In an email, university spokesman Dan Hedman said that any additional revenue will go to the general Department of Athletics budget to help fund student-athlete initiatives, like study abroad and community service programs.
