How safe are our college campuses?

Early on a quiet Sunday morning, Nov. 15, the administration building at Towson University was overrun with police, fire and emergency vehicles. About 120 people were involved but, luckily, there was no crime in progress. It was a staged event to test emergency preparedness. 

“It lets you test things that you put together into procedures and policies,” said Col. Joe Herring, deputy chief of the campus police at Towson University. “It introduces realism when you have people acting out events that actually can occur.”

The drill showed one way that area college campuses are dealing with crime. Campus police say universities and colleges can have unique challenges when it comes to safety in the mahogany-lined hallways and ivy covered buildings. In turn, they say, stepped up security measures now include working to prevent a campus shooting or breaking up an alcohol-fueled fistfight or date rape.

“We see different types of crime on campus,” Herring said. “It ebbs and flows based on what’s going on, such as students may become more distracted during prep for midterms and exams and be less focused on security and personal belongings when they are in common areas.”

Crime on area campuses is often related to alcohol abuse by young adults, experts say, and a check of some campus crime logs reflect that.

Campus police at some Maryland institutions, like the University Police at the University of Maryland, College Park, publish detailed crime logs on the Internet monthly, such as assault, burglary and disorderly conduct.

But more serious offenses, such as rape or murder, are handled by police officers in the jurisdictions where the colleges or universities are located.

Jerry “Buz” Busnuk, a retired Baltimore police captain who is now a security consultant and has worked for some local colleges and universities, said most campuses are “pretty safe.”

“The typical crimes are larceny of wallets and purses or things left around,” Busnuk said. “On campus, students believe they walk into a bubble, and most are pretty safe most of the time. The exception is campuses that have parties and these football-type parties where there is a lot of drinking. What that opens up to is, you have this sort of anything-goes atmosphere.”

Other campuses experience crime related to the neighborhoods where they’re located, Busnuk said, citing Johns Hopkins University’s two campuses — Homewood and east Baltimore — as prime examples. There, campus police and Baltimore city police often collaborate on reported crimes, and off-duty city police officers patrol the hospital campus in uniform, Busnuk said.

In Homewood, street crime has plagued Hopkins students over the years, he added. A recent example of a more serious crime was the mid-September slaying of a suspected intruder by a Hopkins student with a samurai sword in Charles Village. With many students living off-campus in residential city neighborhoods, crime has often been blamed on a cultural clash between town and gown, Busnuk added. Such clashes are blamed for escalating rents and private security fees.

Reporting campus crime is mandatory for institutions that receive federal aid under the Clery Act, named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old freshman at Lehigh University who was raped and murdered in her dorm room in 1986.

The Clery Act states that campuses must publish and warn students and employees of crimes and dangerous crime trends and keep crime statistics dating back three years available for review. Other campus crimes such as hate crimes and any crime involving bodily injury must also be reported promptly.

Nationally, data on campus crimes at a specific college or university can be found by searching this link.

Col. Herring, at Towson University, said 41 sworn campus police officers routinely patrol the sprawling metropolitan campus.

“We have the same concerns that any police department has that is charged with providing a safe environment for the community it serves,” he said. “A university campus typically has a younger population more prone to risk-taking behaviors. We have diverse community here, but our basic goal is the same - we want to provide a safe environ and we do it through a variety of ways.”

At McDaniel College, a private four-year liberal arts institution in Westminster, a six-member campus police force works to keep the peace for the 1,700 full-time undergraduate students.

“It’s been a pretty quiet year,” said Mike Webster, director of campus safety. “It’s a quiet campus, but like any campus, most of our issues pertain to alcohol. When a students find themselves in trouble, lots of the time alcohol is involved. There are minor fights, vandalism and theft. But relatively speaking, the most common offense on campus is possession of alcohol.”

Webster said college officials have a punishment system for minor campus-related offenses.

“If it is assault and battery, the minimum is suspension for the current and following semesters from school,” he said. “For minor things like alcohol use under the age of 21, it tends to be more educational. If a student is caught in that situation, he might expect to take an alcohol education class and write a paper. If there is some indication of significant alcohol abuse, the student might have to go to a therapy session with a counselor.”

Melody Simmons is a freelance writer based in Baltimore.