DePaul prides itself on being an urban campus, and like most urban areas, it sees its fair share of crime.
Every Wednesday, DePaul’s Public Safety compiles a list of incidents of crime on campus, published on its website every Thursday. The types of crimes reported can be as petty as a person stealing a stack of guest passes from the Ray Meyer Fitness Center on July 9, or as serious as a sexual harassment report submitted by a student on July 8.
“The purpose of publishing the crime data is to make our students, faculty, and staff fully aware of what is happening on and near campus so that they can make the most well-informed decisions about their safety,” said Mike Dohm, assistant director of public safety for the Lincoln Park campus.
The data is compiled from a variety of sources. In addition to reports of on-campus crime filed with the university, Public Safety also lists incidents on public property near campus, such as a break-in of a student’s off-campus apartment. Public Safety becomes aware of such incidents through the Chicago Police Department.
“DePaul has long gone above and beyond the strict reporting requirements by also including information on incidents that take place on public property near campus facilities,” Dohm said.
The “strict reporting requirements” Dohm refers to are those set forth in the Clery Act, or the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, enacted in 1990. The act takes its name from Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered in her dorm in 1986.
Per the Clery Act, any college or university that partakes in federal financial aid programs is required to disclose timely (within 60 days) and annual information about campus crime and security policies. The three requirements of the act are an annual report published by Oct. 1 that contains three years worth of campus crime statistics and security policy statements; crime statistics; and access to “timely warnings,” such as public alerts and crime activity within the past 60 days. Failure to comply with the act can result in a fine of $27,500 by the U.S. Department of Education.
DePaul’s compliance with the act is a done a number of ways. The most prominent is through its DPU Alerts, consisting of emails, text messages, voice mail and a computerized voice over loudspeakers, which alerts students of any danger or done simply to test the system. Additionally, campuses offer various emergency call-boxes, and the university temporarily extended the boundaries of its shuttle service in February. Finally, the university releases an annual Clery report and weekly crime blotter.
But while the weekly crime blotter covers the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses, it does not list incidents on DePaul’s suburban campuses: Naperville, Oak Forest, O’Hare (in Chicago, near Des Plaines) and Rolling Meadows.
“The Lincoln Park and Loop campuses are where Public Safety has a presence,” Dohm said. “We do monitor the suburban campuses for crime and we include any relevant statistics in the annual Clery report. There is rarely anything that happens at the suburban campuses to report.”
DePaul’s 2010 annual Clery report can be found here.