February 7, 2008

Reader's Digest Ranks Colleges on Crime and Safety

“Colleges seem like idyllic and secure places,” Reader’s Digest says in its March issue, “but ivy-covered walls can’t keep out every bad element.”

In a special feature, “Is Your College Student Safe at School?,” the magazine ranks colleges’ crime rates and grades their campus safety.

It offers several examples of safety breaches, including robberies at San Jose State University and the University of Cincinnati, and praises some institutions for their “best practices,” like the University of Kentucky for its use of nontoxic theatrical smoke in fire drills.

The rankings, of 285 colleges in an Excel spreadsheet, are based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Education. Sweet Briar College and the University of Wisconsin were the lowest of the low-crime campuses, and the University of Virginia and Butler University were the highest of the high. Reader’s Digest looked at the number of crimes per student in 2004 and 2005 and weighed murder and rape more heavily than burglary and theft.

Wisconsin, with more than 40,000 students, reported no crimes in those two years, while Butler, with fewer than 5,000 students, reported a murder on its campus in 2004.

The magazine also conducted a campus-safety survey, asking 135 colleges whether they had, for example, an “emergency lock-down plan” and security cameras in their parking lots. The Johns Hopkins and Northeastern Universities topped the list of institutions with A grades, and Iowa State University and Principia College were at the low end of the C list. (No colleges received D’s or F’s.)

Principia, a 500-student institution in rural Illinois, fared poorly because it lacked, among other things, dormitory rooms with peepholes and a full-time campus police force. —Sara Lipka

Correction: This article originally identified Washington and Lee University and the University of Idaho as the lowest-crime campuses in the Reader’s Digest rankings. Those institutions actually rank 13th and 14th.

Comments

1. Good that the RD researchers haven’t been trained by me…
   There may be a very remote possibility that the absence of cameras on parking lots and of a campus police force are indicators of low crime…

   — peter    Feb 8, 04:57 AM    #

2. Anyone who completely bases their views of campus security on Cleary Act statistics probably buys used cars over the Internet sight unseen from a site called Fast Eddy’s. Reality is very complex. For example, a city campus located in a very high crime neighborhood could rate as exceptionally safe, as long as all of the rapes and assaults take place on the city streets and alleys surrounding the college buildings. The crime has to take place on college property to be reported here. Most campus crime is student on student, which is rarely reported and thus hidden. If the campus police are perceived as incompetent, students won’t report crimes, and the campus will be rated as safer. A really great police force will attract a higher percentage of reports, which will have Readers Digest rate the campus as less safe.

   — Marty Schwartz    Feb 8, 07:18 AM    #

3. I know it’s a harmless slip of the pen, but the “dormitory rooms with peepholes” gave me the best laugh of the day.

   — Cy    Feb 8, 08:28 AM    #

4. Very unfortunate that a light-reading periodical for families feels qualified to delve into campus safety. They also involve EH&S issues when they discuss fire safety…something that is very different than crime prevention, yet is somehow lumped in together in their scoring. Still, let’s use this as a teachable moment: RD basically has a journalistic interest (whether sincere or not) in a topic that is, in reality, a growing public concern. I suggest some good letters to the editor of RD will help our common interest.

   — Jim Uhlir    Feb 8, 09:35 AM    #

5. Two comments: One, there are more than 3,000 colleges in the US and RD reported on 285 of them. Where are the rest? And two, I’ve always read that nearly every college campus in he country is much safer than the surrounding community. Is this true? Did RD look into this. Or is this just another case of journalism chasing sensationalism without really delving into the truth? Cheers.

   — Bill Barrett    Feb 8, 01:44 PM    #

6. Basing your rankings solely on the number of crimes reported through the Clery Act per student is rather assinine. There are so many other factors involved that it is a very complex issue to determine the safeness of a campus. In addition your survey pool is so small in comparison to the number of schools in the US that it does many schools a great disservice to be classified “moderate” or “higher”, whatever those terms mean. This is not the first time some unqualified person, group or organization has “graded” universities on their “safeness” using narrowly focused criteria that provided a skewered picture. You must be having subscription problems and want to “sensationalze”. You need to stick to what you used to do well and provide wholesome, valid family reading.

   — Harold Matthews    Feb 8, 04:55 PM    #

7. As an alum of Principia College, I wholeheartedly agree that the criteria and methodogy used in this report resulted in extremely inaccurate conclusions and reporting. True, Principia College does not have “peep holes” or campus security, nor does it have locks on dorm room doors! What’s truly important (and was completely overlooked) is the REASON. Principia has a standard of ethics and honor so strong and effective that the campus could very well be one of the the safest college campuses on earth.

   — D. Alford    Feb 12, 05:28 PM    #

8. The 2004 murder on the campus of Butler University referenced in this blog by Ms. Lipka occurred when a campus security officer stopped an off-campus visitor who was acting erratically. This person killed the officer. The mentally-disturbed visitor was subsequently killed by off-campus law enforcement who responded to calls for assistance. Officer James Davis gave his life to protect the campus. It is an instance where security worked, at great price. This explanation would underline the misleading nature of reporting numbers without context. It is unfortunate that the Chronicle of Higher Education did just that with the Readers Digest information and methodology. The interpretation that Butler University is an unsafe campus is simply incorrect. To learn more about safety and security at Butler, visit www.butler.edu/bupd or contact me in University Relations at mdowell@butler.edu

   — Marcia Dowell    Feb 13, 11:37 AM    #

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