A University of Central Florida (UCF) professor was recently placed on unpaid suspension after he partied with his students after a conference and was accused of driving drunk in downtown Orlando last year, school records show.

A school investigative report ruled associate psychology Steven Berman “placed these students in a dangerous situation that could have resulted in an accident.”

Berman, who is paid $96,163 a year and worked at UCF for 23 years, was put on unpaid suspension from Dec. 13 to Jan. 2, school records showed.

Berman promised to never go out with his students again and denied being drunk, according to the University Compliance and Ethics investigation report released to Florida Politics after a records request.

The investigation into Berman began following the Southeastern Psychological Association conference held in Orlando in March 2024.

On March 15, Berman “appeared inebriated” when he met up with students at a group dinner at Carrabba’s Italian Grill as part of a social gathering with the conference, the report said.

Then the next day — the last day of the conference — Berman joined a small group of students at one student’s apartment and took a shot with them. Berman also admitted he drank a mixed drink in the 30 minutes he stayed at the apartment, the report said.

Then Berman drove the group to downtown Orlando to meet up with a larger group of students to go bar hopping.

“One student stated that Dr. Berman was driving erratically, and it was a little scary,” the investigative report said. “Another student recalled telling Dr. Berman that he was driving in a bike lane, and Dr. Berman swerving to get back into the right lane. Another student corroborated this student’s account by stating Dr. Berman had confused a bike or bus lane for a regular lane.”

The report added, “When confronted by investigators, Dr. Berman denied hearing any comments about his driving and denied being inebriated.”

Once out in downtown Orlando, they went to three different bars.

“Witnesses further stated he became increasingly inebriated as the night went on,” the report said.

That night, Berman put his fingers through one student’s belt loops to steady himself — which UCF investigators observed when they got videos and pictures from downtown during their probe.

Students began complaining that Berman got too close to them and made them feel uncomfortable.

Another student said Berman put one of his hands on her lower back and the other hand on her abdomen, just below her chest. He spoke “very closely to her,” the report said.

“The student reported feeling violated and caged in,” the report said.

When confronted by investigators, Berman denied touching the students. “… He stated he could not recall this happening, but that he would never do something like that,” the report said.

At the end of the night, Berman got a ride home from his adult child.

It wasn’t the first time Berman partied with UCF students at conferences.

For instance, one person said Berman drank with students during the 2023 conference in New Orleans and became so drunk, a student helped him back to his hotel room.

“Investigators reviewed a video of Dr. Berman dancing in the street to music during this trip where he appeared to be inebriated,” the report said.

Berman denied being drunk in New Orleans.

The report said another faculty member warned Berman about drinking with students at conferences.

“Dr. Berman dismissed the caution and responded that it was what he did with his supervisors in grad school, and it’s what he’s always done,” the report said.

Throughout the investigation, Berman was cooperative and seemed honest in his interview with UCF investigators who believed he “is in denial about his excessive drinking.”

“He admitted to drinking alcohol and driving although he denied that he was inebriated,” the report said. “Dr. Berman expressed his genuine regret to investigators, stating that he was truly sorry if he ever made a student feel uncomfortable. He also committed to never socializing with students again.”

Berman did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody is tired of Democratic moves to “obstruct and delay” confirmations for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, especially given that new Attorney General Pam Bondi needs help combatting the scourge of drugs brought in the country by illegal immigrants, she said.

“She needs her people in place to effectuate these things. She needs the Director of the (Federal Bureau of Investigation) ready to go. Her passion to secure this nation based on her decades as a prosecutor and Attorney General? I mean, it is still lore back in Florida when she went into lawmakers’ chambers and said, this amount of fentanyl will kill you,” Florida’s newest Senator said Thursday.

She then offered a chilling warning and possible blame about potential fentanyl casualties if FBI Director nominee Kash Patel, who is stalled in Judiciary, and others aren’t confirmed in a timely fashion.

“And remember, that is the number one killer of working and fighting age Americans right now. There is no more time to waste, and if Democrats stand in our way, it is on their hands and heads if we cannot control the crime and devastation that was the result of the Biden administration.

The Plant City Republican made the comments on “The Faulkner Focus” Thursday.

As Attorney General, Moody focused heavily on the fentanyl surge, with statistics backing her read.

 “The New England Journal of Medicine reported that after more than a decade of remaining relatively stable, overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds more than doubled. Since then, the issue has intensified, with the national teen overdose rate climbing to 22 deaths a week. Fentanyl is now involved in at least 75% of adolescent overdose deaths,” read a release from her former office last year.

She issued Spring Break advisories, partnered with McGruff the Crime Dog and warned about vape usage.

And she emphasized the danger to young users specifically, messaging that fentanyl could harm children and teenagers in ways they wouldn’t suspect, especially in light of evidence that children under the age of 14 are most likely to suffer fentanyl poisoning.

In May, she blamed President Joe Biden’s border policies after a report highlighted that Florida leads the nation in fentanyl seizures.

During Thursday’s interview, Moody said Trump was “charging ahead” to “protect this house” and make it “safe and secure,” in contrast to what she and other Republicans view as the previous administration’s permissive detente on border crossings.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis is endorsing the Donald Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Elon Musk is using to ferret out governmental inefficiency, along with proposed changes to the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s funding formula.

And naysayers are lying, he adds.

“So I think what they’re looking to do with the Trump administration is going to be very positive for Florida. If the media is spinning it that somehow it’s going to be negative, they’re not giving you the truth about what the administration is contemplating doing,” he said at the Florida State Fair in Tampa.

During remarks Thursday, DeSantis said “what Elon is doing … is really good,” and “the first significant intrusion into the bureaucrats’ aura of invincibility.”

DeSantis said “they’re identifying and rooting out taxpayer dollars that are being wasted by the many hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of dollars, depending on the agency. So you have these things like USAID. They’ll talk about a big game about what it’s accomplishing, but really, I mean, it’s almost like a corrupt scheme where they’re funneling money to political supporters and trying to promote (an) ideological agenda. And so they’re doing a good job exposing really deep corruption into how the federal administrative apparatus actually operates.”

He posed a seemingly rhetorical question thereafter.

“How did it get to the point where any of this would be happening with your tax dollars? And the basic reason is that Congress has failed at its core responsibilities to use the power of the purse (to) conduct the oversight that they are empowered with under the Constitution.”

The Governor also endorsed President Trump’s suggestions that FEMA, as it is now, may be a thing of the past, saying “what he’s talking about doing makes a lot of sense,” to deal with the agency’s “insufferable bureaucracy.”

“If you had a disaster and you can look at what’s the typical cost of a Category 4 hurricane or any of these other things that happened? And look to see how much FEMA has actually spent on those throughout the past, and then if a disaster comes, you can take whatever that amount is, send 80% of that block grant to the state, cut the bureaucracy of FEMA out entirely, and that money will go further than it currently does at greater amounts going through FEMA’s bureaucracy. So that’s what he’s talking about doing. And we would be able to administer this so much quicker,” DeSantis said.

He also noted that Florida committed its resources to out-of-state recovery efforts during last year’s storm season, raising questions among those who were helped about why the feds weren’t responding.

“So we have our Florida State guard is out rescuing people in North Carolina a couple days after Hurricane Helene, and, you know, the people were very, very appreciative, but some of them were like, ‘well, wait a minute, why is Florida here doing this? Why don’t we have others?’ But there was a mistake made in North Carolina to rely on FEMA to do some of those operational things,” he said.

Last month, President Trump ordered “a full-scale review, by individuals highly experienced at effective disaster response and recovery, who shall recommend to the President improvements or structural changes to promote the national interest and enable national resilience.”

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