Former Professor Charged with 33 Counts of Providing Alcohol to Minors
By: Josh Berry, KARK 4 News
Updated: September 14, 2012
An undercover investigation found a college professor hosting more than academic lectures, that could contribute to a college degree at Henderson State.
Instead it found a former professor furnishing alcohol and contributing to the delinquency of minors.
The Chief of Police for Henderson solicited the help of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Division to conduct an operation last Thursday (9/6) that resulted in the arrest of former Henderson professor and adviser, 76-year-old, Doctor John Crawford.
"Doctor Crawford is the owner (of the home), he was present, that makes him the person who is responsible, thus he gets the 33 citations for contributing," said Arkadelphia Chief of Police, Al Harris.
According to an ABC incident report, the arrest of Crawford occurred after an undercover agent visited a home listed in the report as the "Phi Sig frat house."
The organizations national fraternity and Henderson State say the former organization is not part of their system.
In the course of the last two years two fraternities have been removed from the campus. University administration said this has created an issue with large amounts of Henderson students still congregating at what was once considered "on campus."
"If there's functions or activities held at those homes, then it would be perceived that it was a university event," explained Dean of Students, Chad Fielding. "When the reality is that's not the case."
While Fielding admits alcohol is a problem you'll encounter on any campus, a recent increase in the illegal activity such as underage drinking and fighting -- as noted by the Arkadelphia and campus police departments-- brought on the investigation.
"Thursday night... it's behavior we've seen over and over again," said Chief Harris. "Since this operation last week we want to see if we made an impact."
Fielding added, "Hopefully what will come out of this is those students will not want to go through this again and make better choices. Our goal is to take this incident and turn it into something positive for those students."
The University wanted to stress that other current fraternity houses investigated last Thursday, were found following the rules and didn't get in trouble.
The campus said they're making efforts to curb this type of activity, this Thursday (9/13), they hosted a well known DUI awareness program for freshman.
Instead it found a former professor furnishing alcohol and contributing to the delinquency of minors.
The Chief of Police for Henderson solicited the help of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Division to conduct an operation last Thursday (9/6) that resulted in the arrest of former Henderson professor and adviser, 76-year-old, Doctor John Crawford.
"Doctor Crawford is the owner (of the home), he was present, that makes him the person who is responsible, thus he gets the 33 citations for contributing," said Arkadelphia Chief of Police, Al Harris.
According to an ABC incident report, the arrest of Crawford occurred after an undercover agent visited a home listed in the report as the "Phi Sig frat house."
The organizations national fraternity and Henderson State say the former organization is not part of their system.
In the course of the last two years two fraternities have been removed from the campus. University administration said this has created an issue with large amounts of Henderson students still congregating at what was once considered "on campus."
"If there's functions or activities held at those homes, then it would be perceived that it was a university event," explained Dean of Students, Chad Fielding. "When the reality is that's not the case."
While Fielding admits alcohol is a problem you'll encounter on any campus, a recent increase in the illegal activity such as underage drinking and fighting -- as noted by the Arkadelphia and campus police departments-- brought on the investigation.
"Thursday night... it's behavior we've seen over and over again," said Chief Harris. "Since this operation last week we want to see if we made an impact."
Fielding added, "Hopefully what will come out of this is those students will not want to go through this again and make better choices. Our goal is to take this incident and turn it into something positive for those students."
The University wanted to stress that other current fraternity houses investigated last Thursday, were found following the rules and didn't get in trouble.
The campus said they're making efforts to curb this type of activity, this Thursday (9/13), they hosted a well known DUI awareness program for freshman.
