My wife and I took some classes at UC a couple years ago, and we're still on the campus-wide mailing list.  I've been getting all these emails lately from Greg Hand about all this crime on and around campus - a guy who's robbing folks on Clifton between UC and the gaslight, etc.  Today I got this one:

 

At approximately 8:00 PM on Thursday, November 16, 2006 a UC student was

confronted by a suspect on Campus Green near the fountains between

Lindner Hall and Morgens Hall.  The suspect demanded money and when the

victim reached for his wallet the suspect became agitated and poked the

victim with an unknown object then fled the scene.  No money was taken

and the victim was not seriously injured. The victim was unable to

provide a detailed description of the suspect.

 

UC Police are investigating this as an attempted aggravated robbery. If

you have any information about this offense please contact the UC Police

at 556-1111.  You may remain anonymous and receive a reward for

information that leads to an arrest by calling Crime Stoppers at

352-3040.

 

 

WTF?  I mean, really, are they going to send out an email every time someone bumps into someone else on campus?  Is this supposed to make us feel safe?  I mean, yeah, teach kids how to think about safety, and give alerts when there's a special problem, but a dude was asked for money and then poked.  And 35K people are warned...

give me all your money or ill poke you.  ill do it, dont think i wont. 

Yeah these e-mails are getting really annoying. In a campus atmosphere, information spreads like a wild fire. I've heard several people bring up each crime as if its shocking news. Its no wonder on-campus students rarely go off-campus. I don't understand what they're suppose to accomplish with these emails. If you get robbed or raped there's really nothing you can do about it; it can happen anywhere at any given time.

I've been getting these emails since I started law school in '03.  They serve no use except to scare people.  Maybe occasionally they serve a legitimate purpose in helping identify criminals after the act, but rarely.  I've actually written Greg Hand and expressed these views a couple of times.  He insists that the university is obligated under federal law to provide these notices.  That sounds like bullshit to me.  I attended an undergraduate campus nearly twice the population of UC and never once got an email about these kind of crimes.  The student newspaper reported them, but that wasn't thrust into people's proverbial faces.  And I know they weren't reporting the crimes under a federal obligation to do so, because the student newspaper was independent of the university administration.

Colleges and universities are required by the federal government to send out this information as part of the "Timely Warnings" section of the Cleary Act (or they risk losing their federal financial aid).  Each campus must publish an Annual Campus Security Report that outlines pretty detailed annual crime statistics, historical crime information, and clearly outlines how campus policies and procedures comply with the Cleary Act--including timely warnings.  I know UD distributes their timely warnings by emails to all students, staff, and faculty.

Ah, thanks for that information - I'd never heard of that act.

 

It's the Jeanne Clery Act, passed in 1990, amended up through 2000.  Here's a link to a page about the Clery Act.  Regarding the timely warnings part, is says that schools:

 

...shall make timely reports to the campus community on crimes considered to be a threat to other students and employees described in paragraph (1)(F) that are reported to campus security or local law police agencies. Such reports shall be provided to students and employees in a manner that is timely and that will aid in the prevention of similar occurrences.

 

The crimes described in (1)(F) are:

 

(i) of the following criminal offenses reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies:

    (I) murder;

    (II) sex offenses, forcible or nonforcible;

    (III) robbery;

    (IV) aggravated assault;

    (V) burglary;

    (VI) motor vehicle theft;

    (VII) manslaughter;

    (VIII) arson; and

    (IX) arrests or persons referred for campus disciplinary action for liquor law violations, drug-related violations, and weapons possession; and

 

(ii) of the crimes described in subclauses (I) through (VIII) of clause (i), and other crimes involving bodily injury to any person in which the victim is intentionally selected because of the actual or perceived race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability of the victim that are reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies, which data shall be collected and reported according to category of prejudice.

 

****************

 

So "attempted aggravated robbery" isn't on the list and need not be reported - "attempted" anything isn't on the list - but I certainly can understand why they would report it anyway.  But man, it sure seems like it does nothing but feed the fear, and maybe make it more dangerous on campus - if campus were filled with people at all hours, that'd be a lot different environment than a deserted campus...

 

Theft is by far the biggest problem here. I went to this public safety meeting and the officer said there's a lot of ppl that come onto campus dressed like college students and they wait for you to sit your backpacks down or leave your laptops unattended.

But man, it sure seems like it does nothing but feed the fear, and maybe make it more dangerous on campus - if campus were filled with people at all hours, that'd be a lot different environment than a deserted campus...

 

While I certainly agree with what you are saying, RiverViewer, I must say that working in higher ed, the level of naivety by students can be pretty surprising to say the least.  So what you and I take for common sense sometimes doesn’t even register with students (and I attribute much of that to our suburban nation and today’s “helicopter parents”).  So hopefully these emails do remind students to take proper precautions, act with common sense, and be more aware of their surroundings.  The challenge becomes how to strike the right balance of informing the campus community without striking fear into everyone.

How does it better prepare people to know that a robbery occurred? I guess no one should walk around campus at night, they should just stay locked inside their houses or dorms. Or maybe they could better prepare themselves by investing in a taser for when they decide to walk the mean streets of UC.

I'm not saying that at all, but students can make more of an effort to walk in groups, take advantage of the NightWalk program and campus shuttle, be a more aware of their surroundings, etc.  When I was a student a UC, there were a couple of muggings in Burnett Woods, so when I would park in Burnett Woods for my night class I would simply be more aware of my surroundings when walking to my car and park by a street light if possible.  Nothing drastic, just common sense stuff that sometimes gets forgoten.