Drunk people commit more crimes and drunk people are more often victims of crime. Is K-State doing enough to combat underage drinking at residence halls?
Here is a clip from a story from the University of Maryland that talks about that school's surge in enforcement of minimum age drinking laws.
The rate of liquor law violations served to students on the campus jumped by more than 31 percent in 2005 as part of what police describe as single-year crackdown on underage drinking, police statistics show.The surge in police activity aimed at busting student drinkers made this university the most statistically likely institution in the University System of Maryland for students to get pinched for drinking-related offenses. Frostburg State and Salisbury State, with rates of 28 and 23.5 students per thousand who received liquor law citations respectively, had the next highest proportion. The rate at this university was 38 students per thousand.University Police spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Atwell said the increased enforcement was due in part to belief among police brass that more citations reduce the likelihood of other types of crimes. She also said police had traditionally received grant money to increase enforcement among students."People who are more drunk are more likely to be victims of crime, and people who are more drunk tend to commit more crimes," Atwell said. "If I issue someone a citation for alcohol, they aren't going to want to stay out later."It was unclear, however, why the increase had come in 2005. Atwell said beginning in 1993, state, local and federal grants enabled University Police to dedicate more resources to combating crime, including liquor law violations, but that money dried up in 2004. In 2006, the university provided funding for six more officers, which Atwell expects to have kept the citation rate the same last year as it was in 2005.Police have not published and declined to release statistics for 2006. The 2005 statistics were released as part of an annual review conducted by the University System of Maryland's governing body, the Board of Regents.Experts have said enforcement should be part of - but not the only - measure university officials take in combating crime on the campus.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Email blast about crime
Here is an interesting story about how one Administration lets its students know about crime on campus through email blasts. From George Washington University:
Following a string of highly publicized violent actions on or around campus, a student was allegedly assaulted in an alley near the State Plaza Hotel at 21st and E streets the Friday before spring break. University Police did notify students and staff about the incident through a blast e-mail. The alleged attack, however, raises serious questions about safety on campus, questions that must be answered by UPD and University officials.
Following a string of highly publicized violent actions on or around campus, a student was allegedly assaulted in an alley near the State Plaza Hotel at 21st and E streets the Friday before spring break. University Police did notify students and staff about the incident through a blast e-mail. The alleged attack, however, raises serious questions about safety on campus, questions that must be answered by UPD and University officials.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Looking for black sheep
This article from The Philadelphia Inquirer states many universities are becoming more selective in their admissions process. Where does K-State stand on this issue?
From the story:
Along with SAT scores and extra-curricular activities, college-bound students increasingly are being asked to divulge information that may not be so flattering: their arrest and discipline records.
Since late summer, the Common Application, a form used by about 300 institutions, has asked students and guidance counselors whether the applicant has ever been convicted of a crime or disciplined at school.
Kids with rocky pasts may not make it beyond 12th grade.
In an effort to weed out troublemakers before they hit campus, colleges with their own forms also are requiring prospective students to disclose behavioral black marks. More, including Temple, Rowan and Rutgers Universities, are contemplating it.
The University of Pennsylvania put its admissions policy under review after the discovery in January that a 25-year-old child molester taking graduate courses was commuting from his Bucks County prison cell. Saint Joseph's University will ask about applicants' misdeeds beginning next year.
"It's an issue that's exploding," said Timothy Mann, dean of student affairs at Babson College, who is writing his doctoral dissertation on the subject.
The debate over whether to screen and for what is contentious. Opponents cite privacy issues and the risk of penalizing offenders twice. Education encourages rehabilitation, argues the United States Student Association, the nation's largest student group.
"Are we now putting institutions of higher education in the position of dispensing post-judicial punishment?" Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers asked.
Offenders can still slip in. "No background check is foolproof," cautioned Stephanie Hughes, a professor at the University of Northern Kentucky and security expert who owns RiskAware, which runs background checks on college employees.
Federal law prevents most schools from releasing educational records - including disciplinary information - without a parental OK. Counselors can leave the questions blank, a spokesman for the Common Application said. And schools don't always know about the trouble students get into off campus.
Where Mark McGrath, president of the New Jersey School Counselor Association, works, the few kids who have had an incident tend to admit their wrongdoings.
"We try to put it in the best light we can" on the application, said McGrath, a counselor at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville, N.J. "We're the advocates for the child."
Access to more accurate information and increased expectations about college involvement in students' lives have spurred the trend toward preadmission screening, Mann said.
Though campus crime has not appreciably increased since 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Education, a few high-profile crimes committed by students with rap sheets have led institutions to reexamine their admissions process. The Common Application added its inquiries at the request of schools concerned about liability, executive director Rob Killion said.
Students are warned not to omit information. If they're caught lying, they're disqualified. Administrators believe most comply.
A single after-school detention or graffiti incident isn't what schools look for, anyway.
"We have 9,000 applications and there are eight counselors," said Matt Middleton, assistant director of admissions at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, where students are asked about suspensions and criminal convictions. (No one has copped to the latter.) "We're lucky if we can get more than five to 10 minutes with an application."
A "history of serious misbehavior" is what Villanova University looks for, said Stephen R. Merritt, dean of enrollment.
Several states have taken stricter measures. A new law criticized by privacy advocates forces Virginia colleges to reveal names and birth dates of incoming students so police can cross-check sex-offender lists. If there's a match, the school and local police are told and the offender has three days to register with authorities after moving to campus.
Virginia State Police Lt. Tom Turner said authorities expect to check 80,000 to 100,000 names annually.
In North Carolina, additional precautions have been implemented since students with rape and larceny convictions committed two unrelated murders at the state university in Wilmington in 2004.
In addition to being asked about their pasts, applicants to the University of North Carolina's 16 campuses are checked against a national database of suspended or expelled college students. Those who trigger suspicion are investigated, Leslie Winner, general counsel for the 200,000-student system, said. As a result, 84 applicants were denied entry last fall.
Schools generally ask for a letter of explanation and consult counselors and others when a problem is reported. Though juvenile records are sealed, colleges can run criminal background checks on those 18 or older.
"There's really no need for a university to take a risk," said Joan McDonald, vice president of enrollment at Drexel University, where no more than 10 applicants a year report misdeeds. Serious offenders aren't invited to join the school's 5,000 or so incoming freshmen.
Each school has its idea of a deal-breaking offense, Hughes, the owner of RiskAware, said. Even with murder, she advises not to jump to conclusions.
"What if they were defending themselves?" Hughes said.
"We look at it on a case-by-case basis," said Mark Lapreziosa, associate vice president of enrollment at Arcadia University, which uses the Common Application and which may revise its own form.
"We look for students showing growth or having learned" from their mistakes, he said.
So far only two students have disclosed arrests, one for drugs and the other theft. They never completed their applications, but options Arcadia considered were requiring them to live off-campus and to keep in close contact with administrators.
"If it was a crime of violence we would have to think seriously," Lapreziosa said.
Pennsylvania State University, which has asked students about their criminal pasts since 1991, received an application in 1999 from a man in his 30s who noted an assault conviction. That confession and information the school received from another source prompted an investigation that revealed more time served for manslaughter and sex crimes.
The man was arrested again - on a gun charge - while the background check was underway.
Even in less dramatic cases, the guidelines are obvious: You can't put the campus at risk, said Joe Puzycki, the school's senior director of judicial affairs. Penn State could not say how many students a year it rejects for security reasons.
Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, worries that risk aversion may lead to overzealous enforcement. If getting arrested once was a consideration 35 years ago, he says, "an awful lot of people would never have gotten into college . . . maybe even presidents."
Last year, Justin Layshock got a 10-day suspension from his Hermitage, N.J., high school for creating an online parody of the principal. When he told Penn State, his application was put on hold, said Walczak, who is representing Layshock in a suit against his old school district.
Layshock let his application lapse after getting into a school where he applied pre-prank. With less luck, he could have lost out entirely, Walczak said.
Connie Clery would rather err on the side of caution. She founded Security on Campus after her 19-year-old daughter, Jeanne, was killed by a fellow student during a robbery at Lehigh University in 1986. The Jeanne Clery Act requires all colleges to disclose crime on and around their campuses.
"You never know who's going to be in the room next to you," said Clery, of Bryn Mawr, who has lobbied for background checks for everyone from faculty to students. "This is a violent culture and it extends onto all college campuses."
Something as benign as theft, the No. 1 campus crime, Clery said, can lead to violence, as it did in her daughter's case.
"If you lose one child, there's nothing in the world that can compensate for that and no way you can get over it if you're a parent," she said. "Why risk it?"
The Common App Rap Sheet
The Common Application, accepted at the following local colleges, requires students to detail all criminal convictions and serious school disciplinary actions.
Arcadia University
Bryn Mawr College
The College of New Jersey
Drexel University
Haverford College
Juniata College
Lafayette College
La Salle University
Lehigh University
University of Pennsylvania
Saint Joseph's University
Swarthmore College
Ursinus College
Villanova University
Source: www.commonapp.org
From the story:
Along with SAT scores and extra-curricular activities, college-bound students increasingly are being asked to divulge information that may not be so flattering: their arrest and discipline records.
Since late summer, the Common Application, a form used by about 300 institutions, has asked students and guidance counselors whether the applicant has ever been convicted of a crime or disciplined at school.
Kids with rocky pasts may not make it beyond 12th grade.
In an effort to weed out troublemakers before they hit campus, colleges with their own forms also are requiring prospective students to disclose behavioral black marks. More, including Temple, Rowan and Rutgers Universities, are contemplating it.
The University of Pennsylvania put its admissions policy under review after the discovery in January that a 25-year-old child molester taking graduate courses was commuting from his Bucks County prison cell. Saint Joseph's University will ask about applicants' misdeeds beginning next year.
"It's an issue that's exploding," said Timothy Mann, dean of student affairs at Babson College, who is writing his doctoral dissertation on the subject.
The debate over whether to screen and for what is contentious. Opponents cite privacy issues and the risk of penalizing offenders twice. Education encourages rehabilitation, argues the United States Student Association, the nation's largest student group.
"Are we now putting institutions of higher education in the position of dispensing post-judicial punishment?" Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers asked.
Offenders can still slip in. "No background check is foolproof," cautioned Stephanie Hughes, a professor at the University of Northern Kentucky and security expert who owns RiskAware, which runs background checks on college employees.
Federal law prevents most schools from releasing educational records - including disciplinary information - without a parental OK. Counselors can leave the questions blank, a spokesman for the Common Application said. And schools don't always know about the trouble students get into off campus.
Where Mark McGrath, president of the New Jersey School Counselor Association, works, the few kids who have had an incident tend to admit their wrongdoings.
"We try to put it in the best light we can" on the application, said McGrath, a counselor at Lawrence High School in Lawrenceville, N.J. "We're the advocates for the child."
Access to more accurate information and increased expectations about college involvement in students' lives have spurred the trend toward preadmission screening, Mann said.
Though campus crime has not appreciably increased since 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Education, a few high-profile crimes committed by students with rap sheets have led institutions to reexamine their admissions process. The Common Application added its inquiries at the request of schools concerned about liability, executive director Rob Killion said.
Students are warned not to omit information. If they're caught lying, they're disqualified. Administrators believe most comply.
A single after-school detention or graffiti incident isn't what schools look for, anyway.
"We have 9,000 applications and there are eight counselors," said Matt Middleton, assistant director of admissions at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, where students are asked about suspensions and criminal convictions. (No one has copped to the latter.) "We're lucky if we can get more than five to 10 minutes with an application."
A "history of serious misbehavior" is what Villanova University looks for, said Stephen R. Merritt, dean of enrollment.
Several states have taken stricter measures. A new law criticized by privacy advocates forces Virginia colleges to reveal names and birth dates of incoming students so police can cross-check sex-offender lists. If there's a match, the school and local police are told and the offender has three days to register with authorities after moving to campus.
Virginia State Police Lt. Tom Turner said authorities expect to check 80,000 to 100,000 names annually.
In North Carolina, additional precautions have been implemented since students with rape and larceny convictions committed two unrelated murders at the state university in Wilmington in 2004.
In addition to being asked about their pasts, applicants to the University of North Carolina's 16 campuses are checked against a national database of suspended or expelled college students. Those who trigger suspicion are investigated, Leslie Winner, general counsel for the 200,000-student system, said. As a result, 84 applicants were denied entry last fall.
Schools generally ask for a letter of explanation and consult counselors and others when a problem is reported. Though juvenile records are sealed, colleges can run criminal background checks on those 18 or older.
"There's really no need for a university to take a risk," said Joan McDonald, vice president of enrollment at Drexel University, where no more than 10 applicants a year report misdeeds. Serious offenders aren't invited to join the school's 5,000 or so incoming freshmen.
Each school has its idea of a deal-breaking offense, Hughes, the owner of RiskAware, said. Even with murder, she advises not to jump to conclusions.
"What if they were defending themselves?" Hughes said.
"We look at it on a case-by-case basis," said Mark Lapreziosa, associate vice president of enrollment at Arcadia University, which uses the Common Application and which may revise its own form.
"We look for students showing growth or having learned" from their mistakes, he said.
So far only two students have disclosed arrests, one for drugs and the other theft. They never completed their applications, but options Arcadia considered were requiring them to live off-campus and to keep in close contact with administrators.
"If it was a crime of violence we would have to think seriously," Lapreziosa said.
Pennsylvania State University, which has asked students about their criminal pasts since 1991, received an application in 1999 from a man in his 30s who noted an assault conviction. That confession and information the school received from another source prompted an investigation that revealed more time served for manslaughter and sex crimes.
The man was arrested again - on a gun charge - while the background check was underway.
Even in less dramatic cases, the guidelines are obvious: You can't put the campus at risk, said Joe Puzycki, the school's senior director of judicial affairs. Penn State could not say how many students a year it rejects for security reasons.
Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, worries that risk aversion may lead to overzealous enforcement. If getting arrested once was a consideration 35 years ago, he says, "an awful lot of people would never have gotten into college . . . maybe even presidents."
Last year, Justin Layshock got a 10-day suspension from his Hermitage, N.J., high school for creating an online parody of the principal. When he told Penn State, his application was put on hold, said Walczak, who is representing Layshock in a suit against his old school district.
Layshock let his application lapse after getting into a school where he applied pre-prank. With less luck, he could have lost out entirely, Walczak said.
Connie Clery would rather err on the side of caution. She founded Security on Campus after her 19-year-old daughter, Jeanne, was killed by a fellow student during a robbery at Lehigh University in 1986. The Jeanne Clery Act requires all colleges to disclose crime on and around their campuses.
"You never know who's going to be in the room next to you," said Clery, of Bryn Mawr, who has lobbied for background checks for everyone from faculty to students. "This is a violent culture and it extends onto all college campuses."
Something as benign as theft, the No. 1 campus crime, Clery said, can lead to violence, as it did in her daughter's case.
"If you lose one child, there's nothing in the world that can compensate for that and no way you can get over it if you're a parent," she said. "Why risk it?"
The Common App Rap Sheet
The Common Application, accepted at the following local colleges, requires students to detail all criminal convictions and serious school disciplinary actions.
Arcadia University
Bryn Mawr College
The College of New Jersey
Drexel University
Haverford College
Juniata College
Lafayette College
La Salle University
Lehigh University
University of Pennsylvania
Saint Joseph's University
Swarthmore College
Ursinus College
Villanova University
Source: www.commonapp.org
Big apple or little?
March 23-26 police log
One residence hall reference over the weekend:
GOODNOW/DORM LOTS
report by goodnow staff of a subject pan-handling. Subject left area prior to officer arrival.
One residence hall reference over the weekend:
GOODNOW/DORM LOTS
report by goodnow staff of a subject pan-handling. Subject left area prior to officer arrival.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Police log March 16-19
Residence Hall reports
Boyd:
RP REPORTED IPOD STOLEN FROM HER DORM ROOM.
BURGLARY/THEFT REPORT FILED
Moore:
SUBJECT CALLED FROM MOORE HALL TO REPORT THAT DURING ROOM CHECKS THEY FOUND A SPEED LIMIT SIGN. THEY ASKED THAT A OFFICER COME GET IT. OFFICER CONFENSCATED THE SIGN
Boyd:
RP REPORTED IPOD STOLEN FROM HER DORM ROOM.
BURGLARY/THEFT REPORT FILED
Moore:
SUBJECT CALLED FROM MOORE HALL TO REPORT THAT DURING ROOM CHECKS THEY FOUND A SPEED LIMIT SIGN. THEY ASKED THAT A OFFICER COME GET IT. OFFICER CONFENSCATED THE SIGN
Sunday, March 18, 2007
It has been a while
But I'm back. Last time you didn't read me (this site has darned few visitors) I was expressing my disappointment in K-State's accountability to its students (particularly one) relating to a middle of the night attack in Goodnow Hall. I asked the University to cover unpaid education and medical bills. K-State declined, failing to see my argument that they were liable in this case by letting the assailant into the residence hall.
I've been researching a previous case relating to residence hall security, from 1993: Nero vs. Kansas State University.
This is from a recent paper from the University of Georgia on institutional liability relating to sexual crimes by student athletes.
From Institutional Liability for the Sexual Crimes of Student-Athletes:
A Review of Case Law and Policy Recommendations
Joy Blanchard
Courts also have held universities liable for a duty of care assumed through the campus housing contract vis à vis landlord-tenant relationship.73 In Mullins v. Pine Manor College74, a court rejected an institution’s in loco parentis immunity claims and held that the institution was negligent in failing to provide security when a resident was abducted by an intruder. Further, in Nero v. Kansas State University,75 a court found the University liable for a student’s assault because administrators failed for to notify her of the foreseeable danger created when an accused rapist was assigned to her coed residence hall.76
While it can said that universities have given more responsibility to students over the years, the university can't be negligent about its core duty for security at residence halls. Unfortunately, it has proven negligent in the past. I believe it is negligent now, 14 years later.
I've been researching a previous case relating to residence hall security, from 1993: Nero vs. Kansas State University.
This is from a recent paper from the University of Georgia on institutional liability relating to sexual crimes by student athletes.
From Institutional Liability for the Sexual Crimes of Student-Athletes:
A Review of Case Law and Policy Recommendations
Joy Blanchard
Courts also have held universities liable for a duty of care assumed through the campus housing contract vis à vis landlord-tenant relationship.73 In Mullins v. Pine Manor College74, a court rejected an institution’s in loco parentis immunity claims and held that the institution was negligent in failing to provide security when a resident was abducted by an intruder. Further, in Nero v. Kansas State University,75 a court found the University liable for a student’s assault because administrators failed for to notify her of the foreseeable danger created when an accused rapist was assigned to her coed residence hall.76
While it can said that universities have given more responsibility to students over the years, the university can't be negligent about its core duty for security at residence halls. Unfortunately, it has proven negligent in the past. I believe it is negligent now, 14 years later.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Thief
From the March 5 police log:
21:07 21:09 21:34 BURGLARY P D07002007 P07000165 115
MOORE HALL
RESIDENT ADVISOR CALLED REQUESTING AN OFFICER COME SPEAK WITH A STUDENT REGARDING THE THEFT OF $300. BURGLARY/THEFT REPORT FILED.
Again, could this have been prevented with more secure after hours access?
21:07 21:09 21:34 BURGLARY P D07002007 P07000165 115
MOORE HALL
RESIDENT ADVISOR CALLED REQUESTING AN OFFICER COME SPEAK WITH A STUDENT REGARDING THE THEFT OF $300. BURGLARY/THEFT REPORT FILED.
Again, could this have been prevented with more secure after hours access?
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