With the serenity of the trees and open land, the clear view of downtown, and the benches that catch the cool breeze off the Hillsborough River, Plant Park seems like the perfect place for students escape the stress of college– to an outsider at least.
To students, Plant Park is known as the campus safety-zone for one particular not-so-legal activity: smoking marijuana.
According to campus safety reports, from the beginning of fall 2010 fall until mid-February, there were more than 20 cases in which students and non-students have been caught on campus possessing, smoking or selling marijuana.
The places students have been caught: Austin Hall, McKay Hall, Brevard Hall, Stadium Center, Vaughn Center, and the McKay Parking Lot. Interestingly, Plant Park did not make the list, despite its popularity among pot smokers.
“We’re well aware of the situation in Plant Park,” stated Charles Mascenik, director of Campus Safety and Security. “Our officers are told every shift to make numerous checks over there.”
This past weekend marked the first time security was able to catch students with marijuana in Plant Park. A security report confirmed that two students were referred to the conduct board for possession of marijuana.
Mascenik believes that this is the first of many similar cases to come. He said the reason the majority of students have previously been caught in mainly residential areas is because of the cold weather.
“Now that the weather has changed,” he noted, “and more people are outside in the evening, that [Plant Park] is where you’re probably going to have more [pot usage].”
The park is so widely known throughout campus as the place to smoke that students reported finding out about it within their first few weeks at UT.
“I am a senior and from the first few days of living in McKay [freshman year] it was more than obvious that the park was the place to go smoke. . . . Something about Plant Park just gets the inner stoner,” said Michael Becker, a philosophy major and president of UT’s chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Another student, Matt, an advertising and public relations major, agreed.
“When I first moved down here, people from my floor were out exploring our new campus [and] we ended up in Plant Park,” said Matt.
“Like most nice evenings, we encountered several groups smoking. From there on out I just heard more and more stories and became well aware of Plant Park’s reputation.”
Dave, a senior government and world affairs major, said, “I started smoking in Plant Park just because that’s where I was told to go to smoke since day one of being at UT. It feels safe, I was told it was safe and I’ve been here for four years and haven’t had any problems yet.”
Even non-smokers stated that they became aware of what goes on in the park early on.
“I don’t smoke but my roommate in McKay freshman year loved to smoke in Plant Park and I’d often go with him just to hang out,” said Matt, a senior film and media arts major. “I met some pretty interesting people.”
Another non-smoker, Zach Leentjes, discussed his knowledge of the park. “One of my roommates my first semester at UT was the biggest stoner I had ever met,” said the junior entrepreneurship major.
“He would basically smoke to function. I’m fairly certain he smoked every night in Plant Park and was never even stopped or questioned by security.”
Many students agreed that there is a comfort level that comes with smoking in Plant Park versus the dorms.
“On campus we have a certain kind of umbrella from the outside,” said Becker.
“The rules still say smoking marijuana is not allowed, so by definition there is no such thing as a safe haven. It’s more like a blind spot. . . [My friends and I] would be smoking on the docks and security would creep up on us and yell some[thing] like, ‘Don’t do it!’ or ‘It’s not worth it,’ as if we were going to jump into the river to avoid confrontation. After a few years of smoking on the dock the rumor was that security was cracking down and Plant Park was the only safe haven left.”
“One time four of us were smoking by the stairwell near the water when we saw a security guard coming up behind us so we tossed the joint in the water,” said David, (different from above) a senior government and world affairs major.
“He made us empty our pockets and no one had anything on them so he just told us he’d let us go with a warning but if he caught us there again he would write us up.”
Andy, a senior English major, had a similar story about his run-ins with security “After my friends and I had just smoked, security came up behind us and asked us what we were doing,” he said.
“We had just tossed the roach in the river, and we told security we were just watching the water. Then they just started shooting the sh*t with us.”
“I have never had any issues with Plant Park and security. I’ve had security creep on me, but never any problems,” said advertising and public relations major Matt.
“A friend of mine recently told me that he’s been caught four times in Plant Park, and every time they told him to leave. One time he said a UT security officer took his ID and wrote down his name, but nothing ever came of that.”
“My friends and I were never afraid of security for some reason, even if they drove through the park while we were smoking,” said film and media arts major Matt. “I’ve never been caught and I don’t know any friends who have been caught.”
For its part, the university has displayed its awareness of students congregating in the park to smoke. In 2010, the Creative Shop at Red Frog Marketing created a safety campaign for UT called Lucky’s Safety Campaign. The campaign is aimed at reminding students about issues like alcohol abuse, STIs and the dangers of online stalking.
One of its posters, “Lucky Says: A Little Pot Can Be A Lot More Than You Bargained For,” tackles marijuana use. On the website, getyourfrogon.com, it states, “University of Tampa’s Plant Park is notorious for students to smoke pot at. UT wanted to remind students [about] the severity of the issue, and how you could be arrested or kicked out of school for doing so.”
Article 10 in the Student Handbook states that a student who is found responsible for engaging in the selling, distributing or manufacturing of drugs– or the possessing of items used to create drugs– faces the following sanction for a first violation: Residential students will be removed from campus housing and no longer allowed to enter dorm buildings. Students who live off campus will be given restricted access to all dorm buildings.
For a second violation, the minimum sanction is suspension from the university.
“A lot of the students that are sent to judicial should be thankful, in respect to this. It’s still a violation of state law. They could be going to jail every single time we find them, no matter how much [marijuana] they have on them,” stated Kevin Howell, assistant director of security.
“We do have the discretion on these misdemeanor crimes to handle them internally. So it’s not a safe-zone. And if law enforcement were to come here, they don’t have the digression of sending them to judicial. They would be going to jail.”
According to the campus security reports, there has only been one case in which security reported physically seeing students smoking marijuana.
In most other cases, the reports state that students have been found with drug paraphernalia or in possession of marijuana due to room searches that have been conducted because off of an odor emitting from a room or at the request of a Resident Assistant. In every single case relating to marijuana, the students involved were referred to the judicial board.
If security has other ways of catching students for marijuana-related incidents besides personally witnessing students smoking, why is it so hard for security to catch them in Plant Park?
“There is no free-zone there,” Mascenik said. “It’s just that [students have] been lucky, and they know that they can just throw it away and get away with it.”
He confirmed that security will always ask the students to empty their pockets, but if there’s nothing on them, than there’s not much security can do. “We’ll put it in our report so if it occurs again . . . then we will take action,” said Mascenik.
“We know what they’re doing, but we’re not going to send somebody to judicial for a drug-related incident without something to prove it with,” said Howell.
Despite what some students think, security isn’t out to get them. “We work very hard with the students here to prevent a lot of negative instances for their record, not for us,” said Howell.
“[I] would really really hope that they start using common sense.”
According to Eric Cardenas, the director of public information, “Campus Safety will continue to patrol Plant Park to make it a safe, drug-free zone, while also ensuring the rest of campus is equally secure. Students are reminded that they can increase campus safety by reporting crimes or suspicious behavior through the Silent Witness Form at http://www.ut.edu/safety.”