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GUILFORDIAN
Greensboro, NC
Guilford crime statistics released
An example of crime on campus: thievery
Angela Rioux
StattWriter
When you come to college you
worry about what classes you
have to take, what people you
will meet, and, of course, what
party you should go to. You don't
think of college as being an un
safe place; it's college and it's in
a little bubble.
Every year private and pub
lic schools that receive funds
from the federal student finan
cial aid program must release in
formation concerning crime on
its campus in the past year.
These actions are enforced by the
U.S. Department of Education
and by the Jeanne Clery Disclo
sure of Campus Security and
Campus Crime Statistics Act.
The Clery Act was named af
ter Jeanne Clery, who was mur
dered while asleep in her dorm
room during her freshman year
at Lehigh University in 1986.
Her parents learned after the
murder that there were 38 vio
lent crimes on Lehigh's campus
before Clery had enrolled. The
crimes were not made known to
incoming and current students,
which prompted the actions of
Clery's parents in hopes of pre
venting any other campus
crimes.
Because of the act, future
and current students of Guilford
College and colleges throughout
the country are able to find out
how safe their campus is.
Guilford students can go to web
sites, to our security office or to
the library to get the information
about the school.
Sylvia Chilcott, Director of
Security, said that you must look
at Guilford's crime statistics in
relation to other colleges in the
community. As well, look to see
if the campus is open or closed
with security and gates. An
other point to think about is
whether the campus security is
just now beginning to enforce
the national laws. If that is true,
it is more than likely that there
would be a large increase of
criminal incidents during the
period of time that enforcement
of the laws increased.
On Guilford's campus, the
incidents being reported have
not changed much in the past
three years. According to the
Department of Education web
site, in 1998 on-campus burglary
totaled four incidents, and
seven in 1999. Residence hall
burglary, that is burglary that
occurs in the residence halls,
(mostly stealing from students'
rooms), went from three to five
incidents between 1998 to 1999.
One group of incidents that
has changed drastically is the
disciplinary actions/judicial re
ferrals ori campus. Those in
clude liquor-law violations, drug
abuse violations and weapon
December 1, 2000
possession. From 1998 to 1999,
the liquor-law violations
dropped from 47 to 17,
whereas the other two viola
tions remained the same: 13
and one, respectively.
A comparison school, but
in a slightly different location
is Greensboro College. Compa
rably, numbers at Guilford
show that the overall location,
of a school may have an effect
on the crimes occurring on its
campus. Greensboro College
went from 75 to 48 liquor-law
violations, nine to 12 drug
abuse violations, and from
three to seven weapons posses
sions in the year 1998 to 1999.
DAVE SCOTT
Comparing these schools
with statistics alone may show
that one campus is more prone
to crime than the other, which
may be true. However, the sur
rounding community has a large
effect on the campus. If Greens
boro had gates to supervise
people coming in and out of cam
pus, their crime rate might in
stead be lower than Guilford's.
Students on this campus be
lieve that it is safe. "The cam
pus is small and there is always
someone around if something
goes wrong," said freshman Joe
Norman.
Junior Erica Brammer ech
oed what Norman said, agreeing
that it is small and people always
seem to be around.
If you want to find out more
information about Guilford or
other schools in the United
States you can go to
www.ope.ed.gov/security/
Search.asp and type in the
school or area you want to look
for or go to www.soconline.org
to find out information on the
Clery Act. Those sites can then
lead you to other links, which
can give you more information
about campus security.
For statistics on Guilford
crime rates, please see the chart
on page 3.
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