Skidmore lays down law ahead of pro-pot ‘420’ event

Skidmore College officials say they are prepared for 420, the counterculture holiday for college students and others who smoke marijuana.

After holding several meetings with law enforcement officials and drug prevention experts since last April, college officials spelled out for students what the expectations will be of them today.

They won’t be able to set up enclosed tents on the lawn and more campus safety officers will be working today, dean of students W. Rochelle Calhoun explained in a message she sent to students this week.

“You can have canopies, but you can’t have any kind of enclosure,” Calhoun said.

She said the college prohibits tents on other big event days when a lot of students congregate outside.

“We don’t want to be in a position where we have to be searching and seizing,” she said. “When you have an enclosure, it just makes it a little more difficult.”

She noted in her letter that smoking marijuana in public is a Class B misdemeanor.

“Our expectation is simply this — that all students will abide by college regulations and the laws of New York State,” Calhoun wrote.

Some college students around the country light up at 4:20 p.m. on April 20, a sort of public protest that smoking pot is illegal in most states, including New York.

Last year, media coverage of a group of students smoking marijuana at a pond on campus shocked some people in the community, especially when city police weren’t called.

Police Chief Christopher Cole said the police will respond today if they’re needed.

“The last thing we want to do is turn this into something more than it is,” Cole said. “We’ll handle it as we do other calls.”

Campus safety officers patrolled the pond area, where the students were gathered, by car but did not see anyone smoking.

Calhoun said although no one was arrested as a result of last year’s 420, officials did follow up with some students who were believed to be smoking marijuana.

In general, any violation of law on campus is referred to city police, Calhoun said. The college can also take its own disciplinary action against students and has its own Honor Code.

Students and officials said afterward they believed the event was blown out of proportion.

“I never saw any more than, I’d say, 20 students gathered,” Calhoun said, a small percentage of the college’s 2,400 students.

The Skidmore News editorial board wrote an editorial last year after 420 to defend students and the college.

“Accusing Skidmore of being the source of the Saratoga drug trade is irresponsible and willfully ignorant of the true problem,” the editorial said.

Still, last summer The Princeton Review ranked Skidmore second among schools with the most marijuana users.

In her letter this week, Calhoun tried to impress on students that, like it or not, their behavior reflects on the whole college community.

“Even given our collective positive impact on the greater Saratoga Springs community, the actions of a small number of individuals were able to undermine our standing,” she wrote. “The experience of last year is a good reminder that — even when we do not intend it — we represent the communities to which we belong.”

Calhoun said the meetings with other officials in the community led to discussions about alcohol and drug awareness and collaborating with the high school to have college students teach the younger teens about destructive behaviors.

The marijuana holiday supposedly has its roots in California in the 1970s and has been happening at Skidmore for the past 10 years, but officials, including Cole and Murphy, largely had not heard of it before last year.

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