The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 106

Austin Lyke

(p < .05) with large undergraduate populations
and residence hall space (p < .01) and relatively
fewer graduate students (p < .10) are also significant, as is a positive association with tuition
(p < .01).
for level-2 variables, model 2 shows a negative association between violations and excise
taxes on spirits (p < .10), which aligns with
prior research (elder et al., 2010). Wine taxes,
however, are positive (p < .05). this is likely a
result from data limitations and other unobserved factors, but could also indicate novel consumer behavior among college drinkers. as to
the primary focus of this paper, states with legal
recreational marijuana are predicted to have a
large increase in percent of alcohol violations,
over 150% (p < .05). medical marijuana policies are also positive, including those coupled
with decriminalized recreational possession/
use statutes (p < .10). across both models, the
largest question stemming from the results is
surely: Why are drug and alcohol violations in
on-campus housing higher in states with forms
of legal marijuana?

LIMITATIOns
the most obvious limitation is the absence of
microlevel data, including specificity of violation and offender characteristics, which would
allow for more robust conclusions regarding
party school culture, the social construction of
college students and policy design, and effects
of each on student drug and alcohol violations.
relatedly, the models executed here are descriptive and cross-sectional; changes in policy
and causal effects on institutions and college
students are not analyzed, nor are comparisons
to the non-college population. these nonetheless could be important empirical questions.
106

a second limitation is the sole inclusion of
private and public four-year colleges and universities with on-campus housing facilities.
Conceptual and topical framing limited the appropriateness of including two-year colleges in

With regard to undergraduate
demographics, an institution's
proportion of female students is
negatively correlated (p < .01) with
drug violations, which supports
prior evidence on the higher
propensity for drug use among
males . . . . Among race/ethnicity,
no variables are significant
predictors of drug violations .

the data examined, but there are undoubtedly
interesting conclusions to be drawn from the
relationship between state policy and student
disciplinary actions and criminal violations at
those institutions. similarly, Clery act data are
aggregated and not separated by graduate and
undergraduate students nor wholly uniform
in definition across institutions. in considering future research on institutional and social,
political, and economic predictors of college
student drug consumption behavior, some
variation of longitudinal data (change), causal
inference (effects), and geospatial data (crime)
perhaps could illuminate previously unobserved variables and relationships.

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

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