<p>In light of today's shooting at Virginia Tech, would anyone care to discuss college safety and what the college their son/daughter are attending has in place regarding this issue? Is this something that the college admissions people openly discuss with you as parents when you take a college tour or is it our job to ask them specifics about the school and their statistics, etc. regarding this? Our D will be off to college in a year so this is all new to us. Thanks.</p>
<p>In addition to asking the questions, which tells you something about the attitudes and proactive provisions in place, you can get statistics regarding safety, which must be reported and are available on line.</p>
<p>Does someone out there recall the website for that?</p>
<p>I recall being very impressed with U Chicago's safety department. They have their own police force (not just security guards) that was so effective and well respected that the surrounding residential community (Hyde Park) requested and received an OK from the Chicago Police Dept to switch to the U Chicago Police. I was surprised to learn that the U Chicago police force was the second-largest private police force in the world---second only to that of the Vatican!</p>
<p>Our college choices were mostly very small and rural settings- safety was kind of brushed over with a "how much can happen here in the cornfields" type responses. None the less, situations like today in Virginia can happen ANYWHERE - just as we had 9/11 talks with our kids, I suspect we should "talk and prepare" our college students for situations like today.</p>
<p>Prayers for these families.</p>
<p>Each college must put their crime statistics on their website. Search for Clery Report. We asked each tour guide how safe they felt. We asked about escorts. I even contacted the local pd for each of D's final choices to get stats for neighborhoods around the college. At Q/A parental sessions, most had their head of safety give a short presentation.</p>
<p>I am not saying that the reports contain all you need to know, but it is a starting point.</p>
<p>Don't forget that the biggest threats to your child's safety at college are things like drunkeness, date rape, drug abuse, STDs, pregnancy, fire, theft, and careless driving. Not to be morose but, well, that's the truth.</p>
<p>Colleges will provide you with the statistics they are required to report - but personally I see a lot of wiggle room in those reports. (They are often on line.)</p>
<p>The standard repsonse to questions regarding safety will be - "Oh we have blue boxes and they can get a ride to their car..."</p>
<p>But if your kid is a crime victim, it behooves you to know what the college's process is and if it is effective. Too often families end up wishing their kid had called the "real" police when a crime has been committed on campus.</p>
<p>The Office of Postsecondary Education offers statistics on campus and area crime and safety, perhaps this is the one you were thinking of, mafool?</p>
<p><a href="http://ope.ed.gov/security/%5B/url%5D">http://ope.ed.gov/security/</a></p>
<p>weenie.....unfortunately I know a girl that was beaten and raped when she was in college after attending a party on campus and letting a seemingly harmless boy walk her back to her dorm room. I don't know if there had not been any alcohol involved that she would have been so careless but it was violent and brutal and she was in the hospital for a month, so you are right about the threat of drinking too much etc.</p>
<p>you know there is a site <a href="http://www.securityoncampus.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.securityoncampus.org/</a> or similar where after a girl was killed her parents began lobbying for information to be more readily available to parents on school safety. It resulted in a law requiring full disclosure by colleges and keeping crime stats. A lot of colleges still manipulate the stats....so also inquire into local police depts. My niece was the victim of a date rape drug rape and it was simply reported as sodomy by the police, no explanation. Its better now as far as access but some schools don't like that publicity.</p>
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Is this something that the college admissions people openly discuss with you as parents when you take a college tour
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<p>Yes. After a few tours, you will be as sick of hearing about the blue phones as you are that no school in a American has TAs.</p>
<p>Im pretty sure Penn State has a program where they can text message your phone in case of immediate problems. I remember my son saying something about signing up for this.</p>
<p>Hopefully they will be smart enough to not drink themselves into dangerous situations. It seems that alcohol seems to be the root of so many campus issues, though not of course today's tragedy. I don't know how you could prevent something like that.</p>
<p>For teens, it's the driving that still scares me the most. At this age even the cautious kids are at risk because they lack experience. This has been an awful few months in terms of traffic fatalities in our area. I'll be almost relieved when they head off to college, carless.</p>
<p>"you will be as sick of hearing about the blue phones"</p>
<p>Yes, that happened to us at Yale. I kept wanting to hear about Yale's contact with/service to/learning about the community, and the tour guide (a female from New Jersey) made it quite clear she thought that the blue phones were the nearest thing to putting up a 30' moat.</p>
<p>So I asked if she had the data on the issues Weenie brought up. Her face soon matched the color of the phone (similar to this ;))</p>
<p>Something that nobody has mentioned is the strength and visibility of campus mental health services. In the cases of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, suicidal and homocidal thoughts, and dealing with the aftermath of crime/abuse, mental health services are crucial. If a student believes he can turn somewhere for help where he will be taken care of effectively and confidentially, I think that fewer students will suffer many of these things. </p>
<p>In the case of the VA shooting, there probably isn't a lot that any conventional type of campus security can do besides having good, visible mental health services and effective police action. </p>
<p>Besides that, security should include security in the dorms. At my school, only students in a particular dorm can enter without being signed in as a guest (so I can't enter another dorm on campus even though I'm a student). Upon enterting my dorm, I need to swipe my card twice and show my ID to a desk attendent. There is a non-student working at the desk 24 hours/day, and they quickly get to recognize the students in the dorm (even though we still must show IDs). There is also a visible police presence, and all incoming freshman are told not to hesitate to call 911. Kids are taught in elementary school to never dial 911, and that it's for emergencies only, but when those kids grow up they still are extremely reluctant to call, even though the police/fire/EMTs are there for our own safety, protection, and health. </p>
<p>My school is more unique in this case, but we have a house system where students are in houses of 30-100 students, depending. Each house has resident heads who are graduate students who live with their families in the house in the dorm. These people are trained to be people you can always turn to. I got an email from my resident heads today after the shooting saying again about the mental health services on campus, the deans on call available in emergencies (as well as simply going to the emergency room), and their own availability to talk to students. They even offered to go with students to the counseling center if someone was nervous about going. I know that this wouldn't be appropriate at many schools, but this house system, particularly with the resident heads, really adds to my personal feelings of health and security.</p>
<p>I am not VERY impressed with the campus security at my future college, but I am pleased with the effort and the preventive measure they have put up to help in dire straights. I find it comforting, almost, hilarious when I talk to the police officers in the city and they complain vigoriously of the 13 murders they had in 2005. Coming from New Orleans, all I could say was "thank god!" Thank God I'm matriculating into a college town that has only a percentage of the murders we have in a month..lol. I'm pretty pleased, but always on my guard.</p>
<p>Campus safety in general is something every parent and student should investigate as part of doing due dilligence. But the real place to ask about safety, campus issues, and off campus area problems is not admissions, but the security office itself.</p>
<p>During admitted students days, my husband went to the campus security office of the school my daughter now attends and asked to speak with the director of security. The director was very willing to answer questions, and was open and honest about problem areas and issues to be aware of, both off and on the campus. He even took out a copy of the city map and showed my husband where the "Bad areas" of town were. We found his candor and suggestions very reassuring - these days, every town has "bad areas" but at least we were able to scope them out ourselves, give our daughter some specifics about areas to avoid or use extra caution in, and get an idea of general campus safety and procedures in case she encountered any problems. While the director of campus security may not be as accessible on a large campus, I would be willing to bet that someone in the office would be happy to spend a few minutes talking with a prospective family. If they aren't, I would actually take that as a sign to be cautious.</p>
<p>And, do find the campus newspaper online and perhaps the local newspaper as well and do a search in the archives for "crime" "robbery" "rape" "arrests" Read the archives of the student live journal too -- you'll hear about anything that's being "hidden" or "downplayed" by the administration much easier that way. Admissions WILL NOT tell you if there is a crime problem. Do your own research.</p>
<p>I will also add this: Don't assume that just because a campus is located in a rural area or a pleasant looking small town that it will automatically be safe. Students have a tendency, only natural I think, to get lulled into a sense of security on campus. Yet, crime and other problems can occur in even the most bucoloic of environments. It is unfortunately, part of our society, and it never hurts to gently remind our children every now and then to use commonsense and not take chances, just as we did when they lived at home.</p>
<p>According to a statistic recently cited on a TV segment reporting on a UVa sexual assault, approximately 3.5% of college women are victims of sexual assault. i would not characterize that rate as being a safe environment for women. And with startling rates of binge drinking, it would seem that related injury/death/health issues would make colleges less safe also.</p>
<p>Frankly I would not be at all concerned with gun related injury/death. Yes, the VaTech incident was tragic but is exceedingly rare and murder rates on campus are less that the population at large at almost all colleges as are felony crimes like armed robbery and serious assaults that are not alcohol related.</p>
<p>As a parent, I am far more concerned with personal behavior issues impacting safety that I am with third party crime.</p>