Seton Hill University (SHU) released the Annual Security Report for 2008 this semester, with a noted decrease in overall violations from the previous year. The report, which also includes guidelines for reporting violations as well as university policies regarding conduct violations and crimes, features a comprehensive chart outlining the number of reported violations from 2006, 2007, and 2008.
By Andrew Wichrowski
Staff Writer
Seton Hill University (SHU) released the Annual Security Report for 2008 this semester, with a noted decrease in overall violations from the previous year. The report, which also includes guidelines for reporting violations as well as university policies regarding conduct violations and crimes, features a comprehensive chart outlining the number of reported violations from 2006, 2007, and 2008.
The chart included in the report shows a large increase in crime from 2006 to 2007, with a corresponding decrease from 2007 to 2008. Among the crimes that decreased in 2008 include aggravated assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, vandalism, liquor violations, disorderly conduct, and drug violations.
The report was sent to students and faculty as an e-mail attachment, and has been made available on the SHU intranet website, Griffin’s Lair.
Robin Anke, Associate Dean of Student Services & Director of Residence Life, attributed the decrease in crime to prevention efforts enacted by SHU.
“Some things that we do to try and prevent [crime] from happening, surveillance cameras on campus, higher visibility of our campus police, our residence life staff, having people just out-and-about so that it may deter people from doing theft or actions similar to that.”
Anke also noted that the report is in itself a deterrent of crime at SHU.
“One is post crime stats because we want people to know that we keep record of it, and we do what we can in our power to prevent it from happening.”
Michael Dell, Chief of Campus Police at SHU, noted the uniquely high number of violations that occurred during 2007, and expressed that criminal activity at Seton Hill has returned to normal levels in the time since then.
“[The number of violations] will either stay the same or drop slightly,” he said. “This semester hasn’t been a busy one.”
Anke also attributed the decrease in crime to the increased vigilance of SHU students.
“Hopefully we have students that report things more, that maybe when other students see that students are reporting more things, they’ll stop doing things because they know that other students don’t have a problem reporting their actions.”
The report also shows that number of fire alarm malfunctions has also decreased during the years included in the report, from 14 in 2006, to four in 2008. Dell attributed the decrease to new fire alarm systems in the residence halls of Brownlee, Canevin/Lowe, DeChantal, Farrell, and Maura.
Dell noted that the new fire alarms installed have improved smoke detectors that will send a signal that they are dirty or in disrepair, instead of sounding a false alarm. The residence hall Havey is scheduled to have its fire alarm system upgraded in 2010.
Among the violations that increased from 2007 to 2008 include three hate crimes and one robbery on public property.
“A lot of times, we hope our presence deters violations. But you never know how much crime you’re preventing, only the crimes that happen,” says Dell.
Both Dell and Anke noted that theft has been an increasing problem on campus, and will likely be reflected in the Annual Security Report for 2009.
“Unfortunately, we always see theft. I think that because you have a concentration of students living in small quarters, theft is always going to happen on college campuses.”
Senior residence hall assistant, Denmark Reed, discussed the recent thefts on campus.
“I think that some of the crimes are getting more blatant, people don’t care about the consequences, the results of what is going to happen to them. Because people are stealing stuff out of cars in A lot now. It’s pretty vicious,” Reed said.
While some crimes on SHU campus seem to be on the rise, Anke wants to make clear to students and faculty that these crimes will not go unpunished.
“I think that once we catch someone doing an act like that we punish them, whether that be fining them, to kicking them off campus, or kicking them out of Seton Hill. I think that we do swift action on that person, so that the rest of the Seton Hill community recognizes that we take it seriously, and that we value those students as a community more than we value that single person,” Anke says.