I’ve been reviewing the Cleary Reports for the schools that D is interested in. The report breaks down by off-campus, on-campus, within residence halls, etc. Is there any way to determine the percentage of crimes that are committed by other students vs. townspeople? If not, do you think the school / security would be open about this if asked?
I ask because we recently visited Clark, which is an open campus (no gates) and in a bad area of Worcester. Safety is always listed as a downside of the school, yet the reported statistics are not much worse than the other schools we’re looking at. In fact, when comparing it to Colgate (2013) there were more burglaries and forcible sex offenses at Colgate, and the same number of aggravated assaults and arson at both schools. Yet Colgate would be perceived as a much safer school.
To me, an assault is an assault, it doesn’t matter who commits it. But perhaps an urban school like Clark is perceived as more unsafe, because the crimes are committed by people not affiliated with the school?
Thanks for your thoughts.
if you are going to be assaulted, mugged, a victim of the “knockout game” it will most likely be a non student in chicago, philly or Worcester. do some roommates get into it and it elevates to violence or does a drunk person from the school punch a hole in dry wall…you bet! the threat to a student at clark will most likely be from non students, but that is not a for sure thing.
I dont know much about the Cleary reports, and I know even less about Clark, but to suggest Colgate is unsafe from these reports would not be a true analysis of the data. Colgate is an extremely safe school. The type of place where students will leave their laptop sitting in the library, walk halfway across campus, and come back to find it still sitting there (I would not recommend doing this).
There are probably extreme biases in how campus officials handle criminal reports. For instance, Colgate, being a very insulated school in the middle of nowhere, jumps into action at the smallest hint of a crime. I.E. We had a student leave for the weekend without telling her roommate and there was a campus wide search for her. I believe it even included a helicopter. haha Also, reported sexual assaults are going to be high because students at Colgate are encouraged to report anything they do not feel comfortable with, even if they are looking to get advice, but do not want to pursue any further action. Obviously, the Cleary reports are not very good at measuring crimes reported in the surrounding area (as you said, vs. townspeople), so that could also be part of the bias. The reports only covers what colleges choose to report.
Make sure you take into account how residential the college is. Clark is 70% residential, while Colgate is 90%. That means campus safety handles cases of approximately 1,600 undergraduates at Clark, compared to 2,600 at Colgate. A difference of 1,000 students when looking at crime in the small world of liberal arts colleges is nothing to scoff at.
I am pretty sure that most of the ‘crimes’ reported at Colgate are probably intoxicated students stumbling into rooms that arent theirs when the door is unlocked. The aggravated assaults are most likely frat guys getting in fights with each other. I hardly think this makes the school unsafe.
Interesting observation.
The Clery Act, which requires reporting campus crime, was motivated by the murder, rape and robbery of Jeanne Clery at Lehigh by ANOTHER STUDENT.
Colgate is a bigger school, but I would not dismiss a high incidence of crime as being OK just because the crimes were committed by “drunken frat guys”
@Punumscott , by no means was I trying to insinuate that Colgate is an unsafe school, as much as I was wondering if schools that are perceived as “unsafe” really aren’t that bad. Frankly, given the numbers of students attending any of these institutions, the chance of an event is extremely small (that said, I wouldn’t want it to be my D).
Your last paragraph is exactly what I’m trying to get info on: Are Colgate “crimes” committed by other students whereas Clark “crimes” are committed by townsfolk, and does that somehow influence one’s perception of safety at that school?
Crime is crime but that’s as far as I would relate one crime to another as far as bystanders to crime are concerned.
Crime is an act that impacts the individuals concerned. That’s it. And I certainly don’t characterize crimes performed by townspeople or college students when toting up statistics as “that bad”. What’s the sense of that?
Colgate has 2950 students, the vast majority of whom live on this beautiful rural and residential campus. It is part of and heavily integrated with the small rural community of Hamilton which is of a similar size. The place is close-knit in that everyone knows everyone. Worcester is a relative unknown to me. I have visited on the fly for occasional college football games- not at Clark- and I leave after a 3 hour stay. If you want to experience a campus for yourself, go visit it and talk with a range of people. Then you will know more about its safety issues and how it suits you.
Go 'gate!