B Y OZ SKINNER
After a weekend with his family, a student who wished to remain anonymous returned to Bogue Hall to find the words “Rutland faggot” scrawled across his door. Inside, he found the room in disarray. The student reported the incident to Campus Security immediately and filled out an incident report. Because the damage was so severe, he decided to involve the state police.
This is the start of a trend on campus. Sophomore Frank Riley got up early one recent Saturday morning to find his car broken into and his stereo stolen. “Other people have had stuff taken, too,” stated Riley. He is right. Since the schoolyear began, other students reported theft including bikes, i-pods, and computers. Sophomore Ifunayachukuka Umeugo’s laptop was stolen out of her dorm room two weeks ago while she was in the shower.
Students are not the only ones affected by the recent rash of thievery – professors John Van Hoesen, Natalie Coe, and Jim Graves had belongings stolen out of their offices as well. Sandra Bartholomew, Dean of Enrollment Management, reported that the admissions model room was ransacked twice and that some items were stolen,. The incidents left a bad impression on prospective students and parents during the October prospective weekend.
Despite these cases, Director of Residence Life Marshal Traverse and Director of Campus Security Steve Brown both claim that there isn’t a serious crime issue on campus. “I don’t think the incidents themselves are increasing this year, they are just getting more publicity,” said Traverse. Traverse believes that, although students are becoming more vocal, there is still a long way to go. According to Brown “there is not a spike in crime that I am aware of, but this goes back to people not reporting things.”
Green Mountain College is required by federal law to report all campus crime to the government, in accordance with the Clery Act. The law requires colleges and universities participating in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their campuses.
Last year, only one theft was reported at GMC through the Clery Act, down from 11 the year before. In 2006, Middlebury, a school of comparable size, reported zero and UVM, a school 12 times the size of GMC, reported 23. “I think there is a huge difference,“ said Umeugo. “Last year, I could leave my door open and not worry about someone coming in and taking anything. Now I constantly have to lock my door.” According to Campus Security Office (CSO), there were 14 reported thefts since the beginning of September. What does this say about the GMC community? “When looking at the Clery Act, you have to be careful how you analyze the data,” Brown warns. “Incidents handled internally by ResLife [which] don’t include campus security sometimes don’t get reported.” For example, though only one theft was reported last year, it didn’t include 31 accounts of larceny and 42 accounts of vandalism, some of which were homophobic and racist hate speech.
Students can purchase CSI insurance, which protects students’ belongings from theft or damage. According to Traverse, many schools require it as a part of one’s bill. Both Residence Life and Campus Security offices agree that more effort needs to be put into prevention. “People [have] to lock their rooms up, it’s almost a must,” said Brown. Students also need to report offenses, thus keeping ResLife and CSO informed. There could be a list of stolen goods that security could keep an eye out for during safety checks. “Students can’t be passive. Filling out an ICF takes less than five minutes,” said Traverse.
Residence Life takes Incident Reports very seriously. Every two weeks, there is a critical incident review meeting to go over the major violations on campus. “Safety is always our number one priority and constant review of reports allows us to be proactive instead of reactive,” noted Traverse.
Residence Life is planning a campus wide forum on crime, but a date has not been scheduled yet. Instead of sending e-mails, Residence Life hopes the forum will help students and residents take ownership over the problem. “I don’t want more safety initiatives top-down. They have to come from the students,” Traverse said. According to Student Senate President Peter Davis, Student Senate is not able to take any action until after November 1. “[Crime issue] needs to be addressed ASAP by ResLife and Student Life,” Davis pointed out.
Additionally, there was a talk about switching from a key-and-lock system to a key-card system. The cost would be around $160,000 dollars, which is more than the college is able to put forward at the moment. “I think that I pay a lot to go here not to have that installed,” Umeugo said. Incidentally, the school already purchased card readers several years ago, but the company that sold the readers to GMC went out of business. “On campus security is too relaxed. I think more money needs to be put into securing campus. I don’t think that having keys is secure because people can pick those,” said Riley, who supports the conversion to the card system.
