Raped and murdered in her Lehigh dorm room, Jeanne Clery’s parents took a stand for safety on college campuses. Established in 1990, The Clery Act requires by law that every institution of higher level learning that receives any kind of federal funding release a list of all the crimes called the Clery report.
DePauw University's yearly Clery report was released to the community through an email from The Director of Public Safety, Angela Nally last week.
The Clery report is a fairly concise report that contains facts about crime on and off campus, in definition of types of crime and in the number of occurrences on and off campus.
“It is important for all members of our community to be knowledgeable of the information included in this report so that we are aware of what occurs in our community and can maximize safety for all of our community members” said the dean of students, Cara Setchell.
In this past year the Clery report was adjusted slightly, with the adding and the separating of categories. The categories of stalking, domestic violence, dating violence, and hate crimes were added. In addition, the sexual assault category was broken into cases of rape, fondling, incest, and statutory rape.
With these changes it is slightly difficult for DePauw to have an accurate measurement within them because no one was recording these cases in 2012. But overall, “there wasn’t anything that was dramatically increased” reported Public Safety Director, Angela Nally.
Some of the categories in the report can be hard to understand just by looking at the numbers. For example, not all sexaul assaults on the report are committed by students, and not all of the sexual assaults on the report are referred to court.
“The university has quite a bit of responsibility for responding to criminal behavior and for working to minimize it on our campus, but not all variations reflected in this report are connected to activities upon which we can have a clear and direct impact” said Christopher Wells, the Vice President for Student life.
The report serves as a broad idea of what crime on campus is like, but not all of the facts are there just at a glance. Many details need to be sought out.
This report provides a broad picture of what safety at DePauw looks like, but people still need to be concious.
“People associate safety with places verses safety in terms of the people they are with” said Nally, when asked how the view of safety is centered around a safe living space.
Reviewing the Clery report is one way to inform students of the crime they may or may not see on campus. Being informed of crime can lead to a safer community at DePauw.
“All of us have a role to play in making our campus a safer community, and this important work must be ongoing.” said Setchell.