At issue is the annual 420 event, which was advertised in campus communications prior to Monday afternoon’s gathering of as many as 100 students, according to Skidmore officials.
The term 420 is a reference to the time of day students in a California high school in 1971 would smoke marijuana, according to the Web site About.com.
On Monday afternoon, which was April 20, students gathered on a lawn and lit up, according to college spokesman Dan Forbush, who said the event has about a 10-year history on campus.
“I’ve been told this has been happening for about 10 years, but I’ve been on campus for two years and had not heard of it,” Forbush said.
He said campus safety officers patrolled around the area but did not stop the event.
Campus Safety Director Dennis Conway said his staff patrolled the grounds and did not see anyone smoking marijuana.
“The area where they were gathered cannot be driven up to. You have to patrol on foot,” Conway said. “When our officers approached, if the students had anything, they did not display it.”
He said there were tents set up on the lawn and he did not authorize anyone on his staff to enter those tents.
“My experience of 23 years in the state police makes me uncomfortable with going into a tent without a search warrant,” he said. “If we had observed anything in plain view, we would have confiscated it and taken names. There are consequences under the college’s alcohol and drug policies. We don’t turn a blind eye to these things.”
Skidmore President Philip A. Glotzbach said he regrets Monday’s incident.
“I regret that out of a student body of some 2,400 students, the actions of a small number have raised concern within the community and reflected negatively on Skidmore College,” he said. “I am confident that the reported behavior is not representative of our student body, the majority of whom participate in volunteer service throughout Saratoga Springs and otherwise represent the college in ways that make us very proud. Nevertheless, we recognize that it is important for the college to address the reported behavior.”
District Attorney James Murphy III said he had never heard of the event prior to this year.
“The blatant disregard of the law by the students is alarming,” he said. “The community is demanding that students take responsibility for their actions and that the college needs to deter such events in the future.”
A meeting has been called for Thursday on the college campus to discuss the incident and the general attitude of the administration about students and marijuana.
Murphy said that although possession of a small amount of the drug is a violation of law, not a criminal act, consuming marijuana is a Class B misdemeanor.
“Use of marijuana is a misdemeanor, a crime. If you are arrested, you will be fingerprinted and mug shots will be taken,” Murphy said.
Saratoga Springs Police Chief Ed Moore said his department has been ridiculed as having looked the other way as the students partied on campus.
He said an officer patrolling the campus earlier in the day had been informed the event might be happening, but there had been no request for a police presence.
“I have gone back in our records for the last 10 years on April 20 and there has never been an issue to draw police attention on campus on that day,” he said.
Two officers in a patrol car were in the area of the campus beginning at 4 p.m. that day but were called to investigate larcenies from several vehicles at 4:02 p.m. and were busy with that for about an hour, Moore said.
“Right after that, they were called to a domestic violence case,” he said.
The department had officers in five cars throughout the city that afternoon.
“We had nine other calls in that period of time, including a fraud and counterfeit complaint at the racino and a second domestic violence case,” Moore said.
Murphy said the college students’ actions set an example for the community and especially younger residents.
The Partnership for Prevention surveyed Saratoga Springs High School students in November and found among 12th-graders, admitted marijuana use was nearly twice the national average, according to spokeswoman Robin Ambrosino.
“Our survey found that among seniors, 35.9 percent said they regularly smoke marijuana and the national average is 18.8 percent,” she said. “In 10th grade, the local result was 16.3 percent while the national figure is 14.2 percent.”
She said the public smoking of marijuana on campus makes it seem a normal event of no consequence.
“We don’t want kids to think smoking pot is no big deal,” she said.
Superintendent of Schools Janice White has been invited to attend the meeting Thursday on campus with Murphy, police representatives and college officials.