By Shahryar Motia
1. "Safety is never first -- at least when it comes to the budget."
Experts agree that colleges have improved campus safety over the past 20 years. Shuttle vans, escorts, call boxes and electronic ID for dorm access were once standard only at a few schools. And where unarmed night watchmen used to stroll the grounds, today many campuses employ armed security guards with police-academy training. In the post-Sept. 11 era and in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, vigilance is at an all-time high, and most students say they feel safe. However, many security experts believe schools still have a way to go.
1. "Safety is never first -- at least when it comes to the budget."
Experts agree that colleges have improved campus safety over the past 20 years. Shuttle vans, escorts, call boxes and electronic ID for dorm access were once standard only at a few schools. And where unarmed night watchmen used to stroll the grounds, today many campuses employ armed security guards with police-academy training. In the post-Sept. 11 era and in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, vigilance is at an all-time high, and most students say they feel safe. However, many security experts believe schools still have a way to go.
The first step: allocating more money to campus security. According to Harper College police chief Mike Alsup, colleges tend to earmark about 1.5 percent of their budget for security. "It's the lowest priority for funding, based on the school budgets I've seen," says S. Daniel Carter, VP of Security on Campus, a nonprofit that focuses on crime prevention and victim assistance. Colleges' primary concern is educating students, Carter explains; if money's tight, "they're going to cut the campus police officer, not the professor." Scott Jaschik, co-founder of InsideHigherEd.com, agrees: "There are no Nobel Prizes for safe campuses."
2. "There's tons of crime here, not that you'll ever know about it."
In 1986, 19-year-old Jeanne Ann Clery was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University. In court, her parents learned that 38 violent crimes had occurred on campus in the past three years -- a fact Lehigh had never disclosed. Subsequently, the Clery Act mandated that all colleges receiving federal student aid must make campus crime information available to students and employees. But two decades later, "Violations of the act are widespread," Carter says. A recent Department of Justice study found that only 37 percent of schools report sexual-assault crimes in accordance with the act.
One major problem is schools' failing to provide "timely warning" about crimes that could threaten campus safety. A recent example: After Eastern Michigan University student Laura Dickinson was found dead in her room last December, the university said there was no reason to suspect foul play -- until police later arrested a fellow student for her rape and murder. Turns out top school officials had covered up a grisly crime investigation. In July university president John Fallon was fired. (An EMU spokesperson could not comment before press time.)
3. "Sure, our records are public -- sort of."
Despite the Clery Act, even federally funded schools don't have to make available all crime records. Incident reports, for example, may be off limits. In general, public schools are subject to the degree of transparency that state open-records laws demand. Georgia, however, goes a step further: Anyone -- not just students -- can access all police reports from both private and public colleges under the state's open-records law. "Schools must provide public reports," explains Atlanta-based attorney Ben Barrett. "Policing is a public act."
2. "There's tons of crime here, not that you'll ever know about it."
In 1986, 19-year-old Jeanne Ann Clery was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University. In court, her parents learned that 38 violent crimes had occurred on campus in the past three years -- a fact Lehigh had never disclosed. Subsequently, the Clery Act mandated that all colleges receiving federal student aid must make campus crime information available to students and employees. But two decades later, "Violations of the act are widespread," Carter says. A recent Department of Justice study found that only 37 percent of schools report sexual-assault crimes in accordance with the act.
One major problem is schools' failing to provide "timely warning" about crimes that could threaten campus safety. A recent example: After Eastern Michigan University student Laura Dickinson was found dead in her room last December, the university said there was no reason to suspect foul play -- until police later arrested a fellow student for her rape and murder. Turns out top school officials had covered up a grisly crime investigation. In July university president John Fallon was fired. (An EMU spokesperson could not comment before press time.)
3. "Sure, our records are public -- sort of."
Despite the Clery Act, even federally funded schools don't have to make available all crime records. Incident reports, for example, may be off limits. In general, public schools are subject to the degree of transparency that state open-records laws demand. Georgia, however, goes a step further: Anyone -- not just students -- can access all police reports from both private and public colleges under the state's open-records law. "Schools must provide public reports," explains Atlanta-based attorney Ben Barrett. "Policing is a public act."
Outside Georgia, private schools are another matter. In Massachusetts, for example, incident reports don't have to be open even to students. The state Supreme Court ruled as much last year, after student newspaper The Harvard Crimson sued the university police department to provide incident reports on alleged sexual assaults and other crimes. The court reasoned that because Harvard is private, it doesn't have to play by public rules. This is also why private-college crime logs are not as detailed as police logs -- "they don't have to put who," according to Mike Hiestand, legal consultant for Student Press Law Center.
4. "Off campus means off our radar."
Living off campus appeals to college kids on many levels. It satisfies an ever-increasing desire for freedom and independence. There's a taste of "real life" responsibilities: rent, bills, commute, household chores (OK, scratch that one). It even saves parents money. But it can sometimes be all too real for young people out on their own for the first time, since living on private property not owned by the school -- whether the apartment is 10 steps or 10 miles from campus -- absolves the college of any security obligations. Locks, alarms, adequate lighting -- all these issues have to be taken up with landlords.
For their part, most colleges do provide a cursory safety talk during orientation, but they feel there's not much else they can do to protect students who live on their own. What makes life outside the confines of campus so dangerous? Not surprisingly, the majority of off-campus incidents occur between 6PM and 6AM, with half the victims reporting they were engaged in "leisure activity" at the time. Translation? "If you're out late at night and three sheets to the wind, you're an easy mark," says Bath, from Security on Campus.
4. "Off campus means off our radar."
Living off campus appeals to college kids on many levels. It satisfies an ever-increasing desire for freedom and independence. There's a taste of "real life" responsibilities: rent, bills, commute, household chores (OK, scratch that one). It even saves parents money. But it can sometimes be all too real for young people out on their own for the first time, since living on private property not owned by the school -- whether the apartment is 10 steps or 10 miles from campus -- absolves the college of any security obligations. Locks, alarms, adequate lighting -- all these issues have to be taken up with landlords.
For their part, most colleges do provide a cursory safety talk during orientation, but they feel there's not much else they can do to protect students who live on their own. What makes life outside the confines of campus so dangerous? Not surprisingly, the majority of off-campus incidents occur between 6PM and 6AM, with half the victims reporting they were engaged in "leisure activity" at the time. Translation? "If you're out late at night and three sheets to the wind, you're an easy mark," says Bath, from Security on Campus.
5. "We're not really equipped for a crisis ..."
The potential for large-scale disaster is now part of public consciousness. While schools are mindful enough to examine and revamp safety measures, the nature of emergency preparation is reactionary rather than preemptive, says Mike Capulli, vice president of sales at GVI Security Solutions, a provider of video-surveillance security. After the Columbine shootings nearly 10 years ago, K-12 school districts woke up to the possibility of worst-case scenarios, Capulli says, while colleges "have been slow to respond."
John McNall, president of BowMac Educational Services, agrees. Administrators have realized for a long time that they need to upgrade emergency plans, McNall says; the Virginia Tech shootings were certainly another "'it can happen here' wake-up call." Christopher Blake, associate director at the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, adds that developing better mass-notification systems via text-messaging is job one. Indeed, by the time Virginia Tech police had emailed students that a gunman was on the loose, many were already in class.
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The potential for large-scale disaster is now part of public consciousness. While schools are mindful enough to examine and revamp safety measures, the nature of emergency preparation is reactionary rather than preemptive, says Mike Capulli, vice president of sales at GVI Security Solutions, a provider of video-surveillance security. After the Columbine shootings nearly 10 years ago, K-12 school districts woke up to the possibility of worst-case scenarios, Capulli says, while colleges "have been slow to respond."
John McNall, president of BowMac Educational Services, agrees. Administrators have realized for a long time that they need to upgrade emergency plans, McNall says; the Virginia Tech shootings were certainly another "'it can happen here' wake-up call." Christopher Blake, associate director at the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, adds that developing better mass-notification systems via text-messaging is job one. Indeed, by the time Virginia Tech police had emailed students that a gunman was on the loose, many were already in class.
· Continued on Page Two
