Kaitlyn Coogan
News Editor
Campus Safety annually compiles a report titled the “Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act and the Higher Education Opportunity Act” to inform the students, faculty and staff on the crime on and around campus.
According to this year’s report, forcible sexual offenses have increased by three since 2009. Director of Campus Safety Amanda Warman said she hopes this is because people are reporting more than they used to.
She also added that this is a good thing because that means that people are more comfortable with Campus Safety and Keene Police Department and willing to report things that may be too brutal to retell.
“Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime on any college campus,” Warman said.
Aggravated assault has also increased from zero to one since 2010. It was also zero in 2009, according to the report. Warman said this could also be a result of more people reporting.
Also, for the assault to be considered aggravated there has to be medical attention needed for the victim Warman said. This is because the school must follow the FBI criteria. After hearing about the increases in sexual offenses and aggravated assault, junior Tabitha Aubee said that Keene is a really nice town compared to others.
“Nobody has weapons [on the] Keene [campus]? See, this is a safe town,” she said.
On the positive side, burglary has decreased from 24 percent in 2010 to seven percent in 2011 which, according to Warman, is a result of the new precautions Campus Safety has taken.
“We have increased our use of security technology and then, another factor, is that sometimes burglaries can be attributed to one or two sources,” Warman said. People tend to burgle more than once, Warman added. This also means that students are locking their doors and students are not giving out their access codes as much as they used to.
Arrests for liquor law violations has decreased as well. In 2009 there were 82 arrests and in 2011 there were only 25.
Warman said she believes the reason why there is such a large decrease is because there is a city ordinance regrading under-aged possession that is only a citation.
There is a state law that will arrest or issue a summons to under-aged people who have possession of alcohol.
A summons is still considered an arrest, it’s just “an arrest without handcuffs,” according to Warman.
The report also describes how to report a crime and what should be done in certain situations.
The “Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Statistics Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act” was created after the murder of Jeanne Clery.
Clery was a 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman who had been raped and murdered in her dorm room, according to the E2Campus website.
According to the website, in the past three years students had not been informed about the 38 previous violent crimes that happened on campus.
When the parents of Clery found out this tidbit of information, they banded with other campus crime victims and went to Congress.
E2Campus said they persuaded Congress to enforce an act called the “Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990.”
The act stated, on the website, “Among other requirements, schools must make timely warnings to the campus community about crimes that pose an ongoing threat to students and employees. The Department of Education can fine schools that fail to comply.”
Since then the act has been revised, added to, and is now called the “Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.”
The Higher Education Opportunity Act is the federal law that governs the administration of federal student aid programs, according to Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation website.
Kaitlyn Coogan can be contacted at kcoogan@keene-equinox.com