KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2011 / NEWS
3A
CRIME
Theft dominates campus crime list
BY CHELSEY DERKS cderks@kansan.com
The University and all it represents has a longstanding history of striving to be at the top — from athletics to academics and everything in between. Throw in some inter-conference rivalry, and the desire to be top-notch is kicked up to the next level.
There's one distinctive list, however, on which the University would not want to find itself among the highest ranks — campus crime statistics.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (The Clery Act) took effect August 1991. It requires college campuses to disclose certain information about campus crimes in a timely manner, as well as provide security policies, said Daniel Carter, director of public policy for Security on Campus, Inc. The nonprofit organization was established and funded by Howard
and Connie Clery, whose daughter, Jeanne, was raped and murdered in 1986 at Lehigh University.
"Colleges and universities were under no obligation to make it known to their campus communities that crime happened on campus - let alone provide any specific accounting of it," said Carter.
Schools must report alcohol and drug violations as well as illegal weapon possession in Clery Act reports. Other crimes are broken down into seven major categories: criminal homicide, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
The most prevalent crime at the University of Kansas is theft, said Capt. Schuyler Bailey, Public Safety Office. Alcohol violations, such as DUIs, MIPs and fake IDs, are included in the Clery reports but are not considered part of the seven crime categories. Theft is unanimously the most prevalent crime across the 11 other campuses in the Big 12 conference — aside
from liquor law violations.
Lt. Mark Shearer, Oklahoma State University Police Department, said he thought theft was the number one issue on college campuses nationwide — especially in recent years.
"The economy has really impacted everyone," said Shearer. "You have the average college student trying to make it on limited funds with the price of gas so high and food cost increases ... so property crime is up a bit."
Although theft is the most occurring actual crime on Big 12 college campuses, many law enforcement officials do not see that as a problem.
"I'd much rather have higher property crimes than crimes against people. Obviously we're not happy about the higher property crimes," said Shearer. "But I think everyone can agree, property can be replaced."
-Edited by Dave Boyd
University of Kansas Criminal Offenses Reported in 2010
Forgery: 3
Graphic by Hannah Wise/KANSAN
TECHNOLOGY
Ranking No.8 in social media
For information on crime at other Big 12 schools see kansan.com
BY ALEX GARRISON
agarrision@kansan.com
The University announced Monday that it was ranked the No. 8 higher education institution in the nation for social education savvy, according to Web Strategy Research, a media research firm in Washington, D.C.
The firm analyzed Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as LinkedIn, Flickr and Foursquare usage of 270 colleges and placed the University in the top 5 of colleges with enrollment in the 20,000 to 30,000 students. The survey is thought to be the first of its kind. It "enables university social media decision-makers to compare their level of social media activity against peer institutions, both overall and for specific social media channels," according to its website.
"We appreciate this recognition and will continue to use social media to create stronger bonds with past, present and future Jayhawks", said Corey Stone, associate director of digital media services, in a media release.
The social media accounts are managed by University Relations, the spokesteam for the University, who say they pride themselves on "telling the KU story" through these online platforms.
The KU Facebook page has nearly 135,000 fans. Its news Twitter feed has about 6,000 followers. Foursquare for campus has three pages of established check-in points and on one of the (relatively) older social media sites, the ubiquitous YouTube, the University's page has nearly 900,000 video views.
-Edited by Danielle Packer
Graphic by Hannah Wise/KANSAN
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