Campus Safety

Q: In the college selection process, what is the single most important factor about the college environment that will affect your child’s higher educational experience?

a. housing

b. student life

c. cafeteria food

d. campus safety

If you guessed a, b or c, think again. The answer is d, campus safety.

“There is nothing that is more important than the safety and security of students on campus,” says safety expert Howard Clery.

Security on Campus
Clery, whose advocacy watchdog group Security on Campus promotes campus crime education and violence prevention, knows too well that lack of security measures on a college campus can spell tragedy. In 1986, Clery’s sister, Jeanne, then a freshman at Lehigh University, was raped and murdered in her college dorm. 

 “There were major safety issues that the school was ignoring,” says Clery. “My sister’s dorm was open 24/7. The school knew this, and their solution was to have the kids to go around and shut the doors.”

On the evening of April 5, 1986, a door was left unsecured, and Jeanne Clery’s murderer gained entrance to her dorm. Jeanne’s parents, Howard and Connie Clery, later discovered that students at the school had not been informed of the 38 violent crimes that had occurred on the college’s campus in the three years prior to Jeanne’s murder. If students had been informed, they proposed, perhaps they would have taken precautions to avoid being victims.

To make sure that no other family would suffer such a tragedy, the Clery family formed Safety on Campus in 1987.

The Cleary Act
The most monumental act of Safety on Campus to date was pushing through federal legislation requiring all higher educational institutions to publish an annual report that discloses crimes on and around their campuses. The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, also known as the Clery Act, was signed into law in 1990.

For parents as well as students, the Clery Act provides an invaluable tool for assessing campus safety. The law requires all colleges and universities to publish statistics about crimes committed on campus and to make this information available to all students. The report must contain crime statistics for the current as well as the previous two calendar years, information about the institution’s security programs and staff and institution-specific crime-prevention policies. Crime statistics must be categorized by offense, as well as by where the crimes were committed.

The price is high for institutions that do not comply with the Clery Act. For each missing crime statistic and each missing report, the fine is $27,500. This policy has resulted in fines as much as $2.3 million dollars for an individual institution. In addition to civil suits, non-compliant colleges face the possibility of losing their privilege to participate in federal student aid programs.

Interpreting the statistics
Higher crime statistics don’t necessarily mean more crime, says Dolores Stafford, chief of police at George Washington University and president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). “The reality is that if you have a campus that is aggressively policing the campus and focusing on security and safety issues, the statistics are actually higher,” says Stafford.

Low crime statistics might be encouraging, but extremely low statistics should raise a red flag, Clery says.

Looking beyond the numbers
The Clery Report is a useful tool, but it should not be the sole resource used to assess campus safety. “You’ve got to look at statistics as one factor among many factors,” says IACLEA’s Stafford. Look at their companion documents. How many programs do they have? What are their reporting procedures?”

Safe residences
The best security systems in residence halls are electronic ones that provide key card access. Doors should be self-locking and hardwired to the campus security system, says Clery. “When you have a keycard system, information is retained by the system on who enters buildings at what time,” he explains.

Also key is minimal points of building entry. “There should be only one or two doors to get in, and they should be self-locking,” says Clery.

Security systems are only effective when students are compliant. It is critical that students be educated in the importance of maintaining residential security—discouraging practices that invite crime, such as propping doors open and allowing non-authorized persons to access to buildings. Stafford agrees. “The truth is most of the time schools have electronic security systems, and students defeat them. That is one of our biggest problems. The more secure your facility, the less convenient.  “While parents want the campus to be secure, I sense the students want it to be more convenient. That is the case until an incident occurs,” she says.

Room security
Just as important as controlled building access is security in individual rooms, says Clery. “There have been instances where the school tells the dorm staff to leave doors open in order to meet people. You should never do that. Think of your dorm room like a hotel room or an apartment. You never leave those dorm rooms open any amount of time A good dorm room door will be self-locking. It will have a peep hole and a deadbolt,” he says.

Alcohol and crime
Clery says some of the best campuses have strict no-alcohol policies. “In accordance pretty much with state law, campuses should have a policy that says, ‘there’s no drinking on campus (or) only students over 21 can drink, and only in their dorm rooms,” says Clery.

That doesn’t mean that underage college students won’t have the opportunity to drink illegally. Parents can help by educating their children about the dangers of alcohol.

Personal property theft prevention
The majority of larcenies—personal property thefts—that occur on campus take place in unlocked and unattended areas. Campus police officers from The University of Rochester recommend that students keep their property with them at all times. “If you’re in the library and you’re going to the vending machine, take your laptop or your backpack with you,” they say.

If students have a vehicle on campus, they should check on them frequently and move them occasionally.  

Campus security presence
Campus visits provide an ideal opportunity for parents to see firsthand what the security presence is, says Clery. “Look at how professional the staff is. If the campus police chief is there on your tour telling you about their programs, how to avoid being a victim and how good they are doing, that tells me they are being proactive.” he says. Stafford encourages campus visitors to ask current students about campus safety. “If you survey students informally, I think in general most are pretty fair in their assessment,” she says.

Clery says the best campus policing forces are those that have police officers on staff who are authorized to patrol dorms both day and night. “They are sworn to uphold the law, and an administrator who suggests that they do not can be arrested,” he explains.

Crime prevention programs
A good institution will provide a comprehensive program on crime prevention that includes such topics as drug and alcohol abuse and sexual assault prevention.

In addition, says Clery, all campus staff should be educated in victim advocacy. “Everybody from the campus judicial system to the campus police to residence life should be trained in how to deal with the victims they come across, and there should be policies and procedures about doing so,” he says.

The best advocacy program, adds Stafford, is one that provides multiple methods for reporting a crime. For instance, she explains, George Washington University maintains a tips phone line and Web page. “Only I answer the tips line. You can also file a confidential report,” she says.

The student’s role
Campus crime prevention programs are only effective when students are active participants, says Stafford. “You have to have a student body that is using common sense and making good judgments with regard to their own safety and security. No matter how good a university is at providing security, they can’t have someone everywhere.”

Questions parents should ask about campus safety
Can I see the latest copy of your compliance document? (Also known as Clery Report.)

How safe are your residences? How many are co-ed? Who patrols them? Is there a guest sign-in procedure?

Who is trained in victim resource? RA’s, campus judicial officers, security staff…?

How can I access updated information about security issues on your campus.

What you can do to ensure your teen’s campus safety? 
Help your teen to select a campus that has a solid reputation as a safe campus with an active and responsive policing force.

Educate your teen about alcohol use and its dangers as it relates to personal safety.

Educate your teen about personal safety measures.

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