After the death of more than 30 people on a college campus, how can you be sure your child's campus community is safe?
You can't count on crime statistics alone.
You can, however, find some solace in conducting your own campus safety audit before enrolling your child, and even after they begin to attend. Also, those who attend college, especially those who live on or near campus, should always adhere to campus safety tips.
Audits and safety tips can't erase the tragedy of April 16, 2007, when a shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in Blacksburg, VA, took dozens of lives and devastated a community.
But such action can help in the process of healing and soothing some of the trepidation arising over the deadliest shooting incident in American history.
It can also foster change.
Connie and Howard Clery, responsible for stronger federal mandates on reporting crime on and around college campuses, did just that when they created the grass roots non-profit Security On Campus, Inc. in 1987. A year earlier, their daughter Jeanne, a freshman, was raped and murdered in her Lehigh University dormitory room in Bethlehem, PA.
They discovered, before 1988, only four percent of America's colleges reported crime statistics to any agency off campus, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). Students and parents had no clue to the level of crime on virtually any given campus.
A 1999 "College Community Crime Risk" study, by APBNews.com, now only a portal to crime news, only revealed off-campus crime.
The Virginia Tech shootings reveal more needs to be done, but now parents and students have federal laws protecting their rights to information on security policies and crime statistics -- on and off campus -- as well as a host of other related protection from crime.
Statistics are available from the FBI and U.S. Department of Education, but it's immediately obvious, statistically speaking, the shooting spree at Virginia Tech was an aberration that data could have never foretold.
On a normal day at Virginia Tech, much like most colleges and universities, property theft is the only crime story on campus. For the available years, 2003 to 2005, in the mandated data base, there were no criminal deaths at Virginia Tech. Sexual offenses and assaults are less common than property crime, though certainly no less troubling.
The Clerys say even with improved reporting requirements, crime statistics are obviously only a small part of the story.
While students and parents should know their rights about campus crime disclosure and reporting crime, it's also up to them to perform a "Campus Safety Audit" and always use "Campus Safety Tips".
The audit, on the brochure provided by SecurityOnCampus.org, examines more than two dozen residence hall security issues from alcohol prohibition and coed bathrooms to panic alarms in rooms and window security.
It also helps students and their parents examine visitor policies, campus access, security patrols, handling of roommate conflicts and health services for rape, drug, alcohol, peer, safety counseling and support services.
When it comes to safety tips, the fundamentals always apply, according to SecurityOnCampus.org.
On campus:
- Protect your identity. Freshmen should decline to have photos and personal information published for distribution to the campus community. Such information can be used to target naive freshmen.
- Get a "buddy." Share your schedule with a network of close friends, parents, teachers and advisors. Travel in groups. Use shuttle or other escort services after dark and never walk alone after dark.
- Know your neighborhood. Study campus and neighborhood routes between the residence and classrooms or activities. Know emergency phone locations.
Gauge the social scene, by driving down fraternity row on weekend nights and stroll, with a buddy, through the student hangouts to determine if people are behaving responsibly or engaging in wild, reckless activities. Alcohol and or drug abuse is involved in about 90 percent of campus crime, the Clerys say.
Likewise, evaluate off-campus student apartment complexes and fraternity houses.
In the dorm:
- Doors and windows to your residence hall should secure. Doors should be equipped with deadbolt locking systems and peepholes. Don't loan your key, leave doors and windows open when you are away and quickly re-key when a key is lost or stolen. Card access systems are superior because they enable immediate code changes when keys are lost, stolen, or when housing assignments change.
- Dormitories should have a central access lobby with monitored nighttime access and an outside telephone or intercom system visitors must use to gain access. Closed circuit video identification is ideal.
- Insist that residential assistants and security patrols routinely check for "propped doors" -- day and night.
- Do not leave your identification, wallets, checkbooks, jewelry, cameras, and other valuables in open view.
- Program your phone's speed dial memory with emergency numbers that include family and friends.
- Know your neighbors and don't be reluctant to report illegal activities and suspicious loitering.
