COLLEGE SECURITY:
Survival Strategies
for Campus Safety
FAQ

College security protects everything you are trying to gain. See what crime victims can teach you about campus safety – and how to sidestep the hidden dangers.

HARSH LESSONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS

Many thrive at university and love the social life that residential living creates. But for some it is a nightmare. Sexual assaults are often written off as isolated incidents or drunken pranks best forgiven and forgotten. They are rarely reported to police, the young women preferring instead to carry on with their university life, or worse, leave defeated by the cult of college, fearing retribution should they disclose the crime. ... Annie Cossins, a senior lecturer in the school of law at the University of NSW, says consent is very easily eroded ''when you start throwing things in like 'she was drunk', 'she was dressed this way', 'she came on to me'. It’s very easy for men to throw this back at women ... and girls tend to not report because these men are acquaintances ... It’s much easier to report stranger rape.” ... Elicia, a final-year student at the University of Sydney tells about the night she was raped in her room on campus. ''I never understood girls who kept quiet about rape. I always imagined that I would march straight to the police station. But having something so awful happen in the place I felt safe just knocked that sense of strength and self-assurance out of me. It is a culture of cover-up. Boys who are intelligent, rational and lovely to women will still protect one of their own.''
Excerpted from The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) – 09 November 2009

• See Women’s Safety - Date Rape to learn how to defeat the most common threat to your college security.
• See Date Rape Drugs to learn from victims how to stay safe.
• See Criminal Minds - Intuition to learn how to listen to – and respect – your inborn early-warning system.
• See Apartment Security: how renters can keep safe FAQ.

"Jeanne was asleep in her bed. There were three doors that should have been locked, and she didn't have an enemy in the world. And Lehigh was such a safe-looking place," her mother says. Jeanne Clery was 19 and a freshman at Lehigh University when a stranger – a student – raped, tortured, and strangled her. ... Her parents started a college security group, Security on Campus, to force schools to disclose all crime on campus. Then students – and their parents – will know. Twenty years ago, Congress passed the Jeanne Clery Act. ... But schools have limited ability to investigate the conflicting claims of acquaintance-rape cases. Campus disciplinary programs are not a court of law, and are used to teach students more than to mete out justice. The result is that many women disagree with the outcome and end up leaving school. ... Because it's hard to sort out truth, schools put more emphasis on prevention. The most effective college security programs get students talking about the risks of drinking and rape, and the meaning of consent.
Excerpted from National Public Radio (NPR) – 24 February 2010

See www.SecurityOnCampus.org to help you choose a safer school or be more aware of the risks at the school you're attending.

SEX OFFENDER CLASSMATES

Gainesville | Registered sex offender Boyd David Hodges attended the University of Florida for about six months before campus police began receiving complaints that alerted them to his presence. A classmate's complaint about Hodges in February was the first time that UF police became aware a registered sex offender had been admitted without their knowledge. ... Offenders are legally required to report to the local sheriff's office about their enrollment in colleges and universities. The office is then supposed to notify college security police. But as Hodges' case shows, there can be a breakdown in communication. ... When police know sex offenders are enrolled, they notify faculty and staff, but students are generally not told unless incidents occur.
Excerpted from The Ledger (Lakeland FL) – 08 November 2009

Why does the school wait until AFTER another "incident" before telling you that a schoolmate is a registered sex offender? That's putting you at increased risk without you knowing it – gambling with unknowing students as unwitting guinea pigs. Unlike the general public, a schoolmate has easier access to you. Apparently, the school thinks a registered sex offender's right to privacy outweighs your right to know you’re in danger. How’s that for campus safety?

SUPERWOMAN COMPLEX

After the massacres at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois in 2007 and 2008, college security refocused its safety approaches with mass alert systems and emergency preparedness plans. But they've also been retooling how they keep students safe from day-to-day crime. ... College police say staying safe often requires little more than common sense. ... Between their busy mix of classes, work, new friends and new freedoms, many students have a "Superwoman complex," said one student. "The hardest thing to combat is this 'it-won't-happen-to-me' mentality." ... Ferris State University's police chief said that campuses "are mostly safe places, but that can lull you into a false sense of security. ... An Eastern Michigan University college security officer gets up early to remind students of their vulnerability by pounding on dorm room doors in the pre-dawn hours. On a recent morning, he found eight unlocked doors in less than a half-hour, despite dormitory hallway signs reminding students to lock their doors. ... Technology doesn't always deter crime. Police say it also can make students more vulnerable, like those who send text messages on their cell phones or listen to music through earbuds while walking alone. Or ones who post their personal information on social networking sites. ... Henry Ford Community College student Asia McGowan was gunned down by a classmate in a murder-suicide. Her killer, Anthony Powell, 28, had "friended" her on Facebook, although there is no evidence the two were really friends. "He was stalking her in a virtual world," police said.
Excerpted from Mlive.com – 23 August 2009

Gamble in Vegas – not in your life. See Stalker Warning Signs.

COLLEGE SECURITY?

College women are more likely to be raped than other women their age, and they're less likely to report it. They're in greatest danger during the first few weeks of freshman year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And yet colleges continue to sell themselves as safe places. They're too afraid to say the truth. ... Phyllis Barkhurst, of the state attorney general's office, described two types of rapists on college campuses. One is the sex offender, who gets a thrill from forcing sex. The other is what she calls the "I'm-gonna-have-sex offender," someone who doesn't see himself as a rapist. ... It's the guy who targets freshmen women who are new to campus, afraid of getting a bad reputation and unlikely to press charges. Sometimes it's the guy who uses the memory-erasing date rape drug. ... If colleges were honest, they'd send letters to parents of incoming freshmen women and explain the prevalence of sexual assault on all campuses. But most colleges fear the blow to their reputation for college security from being the only one to tell the truth. Funny; that's exactly how students feel who are raped.
Excerpted from The Oregonian – 21 November 2004.

In the late 1960’s, John Norman Collins, a handsome Ann Arbor, Michigan college student, went to parks to meet young women and take them for motorcycle rides. He tortured and murdered them all. Yet today young women still often meet handsome young men and go wandering off with them. A chance encounter may quickly become an impromptu date with the woman too enthralled to think about college security. That is precisely what predators count on.

College applicants don't receive psychological screening, but experts said there are no reliable tests that predict criminal behavior. "Unfortunately, it's just not that easy," said Sharon Tagaling Hagan, with the California Bureau of Investigation. It's a mistake to assume that an intelligent person is somehow less likely to rape. "Intelligence has very little to do with sex," she said. ... From the man's perspective, sex is a game, and women who say "no" don't really mean it. The man probably had experiences in which a woman initially said "no" then changed her mind. Therefore, he sees resistance as an integral part of the dance. "Most offenders don't interpret crying as resistance. In some cases, he'll feel horrible afterward "and would never do that again," Hagan said. ... Other offenders believe that's how sex works, and if they get away with it once, they will be more inclined to do it again. That's one reason women must report their rapes, Hagan said.
Excerpted from The Rocky Mountain News (Denver) – 10 May 2003

RESOURCES for College Security

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