U. admin. asked LCE to patrol, Rush says

Crackdown will continueCrackdown will continueduring Hey Day, Relays The Liquor Control and Enforcement Bureau presence during Spring Fling weekend was requested by the University's Division of Public Safety, according to Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush. "Public Safety took the lead in requesting their assistance," she said. "We had thought about inviting them here for a long time to find out how the student body uses alcohol." Rush added that department officials hoped the LCE's presence would change the "culture" on campus. "We don't want Penn to be a drinking culture," she said. "Having the LCE on campus is a vehicle to change that." To that end, the LCE will once again patrol the campus this weekend during Hey Day and Penn Relays festivities. An LCE supervisor confirmed that the University asked for the Bureau's help. "They requested for us to come out," Sgt. John Lyle said. "They didn't say why." But Managing Director of Public Safety Thomas Seamon denied that the University "invited" the LCE to campus over Fling weekend. "'Invited' is the wrong word," he said. "They're here almost every weekend." Seamon added that University Police officials do not always know when the LCE is on campus. "They come and go as they please," he said. Lt. Mark Lomax, an LCE spokesperson, said that is not true. "We don't go on campuses without letting the universities know about it," he said. Rush explained that the decision to request LCE assistance came about after a series of discussions within the Division of Public Safety. The LCE -- which is a branch of the Pennsylvania State Police -- issued 175 citations to students over the three-day Fling weekend for violations of state underage drinking, fake ID, and open container regulations. LCE sources said the agency's coverage was unusually heavy over Fling weekend. "We've never done an underage drinking detail at the University of Pennsylvania before," Lomax said. "We work primarily based on complaints -- when colleges and universities foresee problems and request our help, we try to honor those requests." Seamon said LCE agents could have easily given out more citations than they did. "If they had wanted to, they could have given out a couple of thousand citations over the three days," he said. "The rules of law are not suspended on campus during Spring Fling." He added that he "hopes the LCE will maintain a presence on campus. "I was happy to see them here," he said. "Underage drinking is illegal, and the liability to the University is absolutely unacceptable." Rush said the LCE and University Police had a "continual dialogue" about the LCE's future role on campus. "They saw they had their job cut out for them on campus," she said. "The need for more liquor enforcement was very easy to see."