Conforming to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, the College recently released updated campus crime statistics online.

The bill, the latest incarnation of the Student Right-To-Know and Campus Security Act, introduced in 1991, originally required that all colleges and universities report their crime statistics and provide them to all current and prospective students.

However, a 1998 amendment created additional requirements which included new categories for crime statistics, the inclusion of crimes committed on public property adjacent to campuses, a geographic breakdown of crimes and the creation of a daily crime log, according to the Johns Hopkins Clery Bill site. In addition, three years' worth of statistics had to be publicly available.

"My own view is that I think people deserve information about how safe the campus is," Vice President for Student Affairs Sam Sadler said.

The College's statistics can be found at www.wm.edu/institresearch/crime/

crime_index.htm. The site breaks the information down into the categories of on-campus, non-campus, public property and non-police.

Compared to the statistics of other universities, the College's numbers are low, according to Sadler and Director of University Relations Bill Walker. The officials see the way information is reported as leveling the playing field for the reporting of statistics.

"We've been hurt by a few things on our own statistics," Walker said. "Most people live on campus. There's a higher theft risk."

Another aspect that makes the College's statistics now more comparable to those of other schools is the absence of misdemeanors from the new statistics' requirements. According to Sadler, the number of crimes such as bike theft inflated the College's numbers when the total of crimes were presented.

"I think that it reflects the realization that that's not as serious a crime as robbery and burglary," Walker said.

Sadler added that the College will add footnotes to the statistics that have been posted already, to put them in perspective. He also mentioned that footnotes might be added concerning whether the arrests were made on students.

Another factor that Walker and Sadler said made the College's statistics seem high was fraudulent reporting of crime statistics by other colleges. According to Sadler, the meticulous reporting of College crimes made its statistics seem abnormally high in comparison to other schools.

Some of the more interesting statistics include on-campus arrest for alcohol offenses, which have declined from 77 in 1997 to 69 in 1998 to 43 in 1999. Sadler attributes this to campus alcohol initiatives and the College's programs that deal with alcohol.

"The campus is putting a lot of emphasis on responsible use of alcohol," he said.

One disturbing trend is the rise in on-campus burglary arrests during the past three years. Burglary rose from two in 1997 to nine in 1999, seven were in residence halls.

Sadler attributed much of this crime to off-campus sources, and emphasized that, especially in the light of the recent thefts at the Rec Center, students should be less trusting of non-students on campus.

As of now, the site is incomplete. Some statistics read either "n/a" or list the date they'll be posted. Sadler attributes this to the fact that the new requirements needed a new compilation system and hopes that the rest of the statistics will be up by the end of October.