The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Yale and UConn top in state for burglary, rape
Connecticut colleges reported more than 100 rapes and burglaries in 2018 on and near their campuses in 2018, according to recently released annual safety reports.
Yale, the state’s second largest school, reported 26 rapes, the highest in the state, followed by the largest, University of Connecticut’s main campus in Storrs, which reported 23.
The numbers at both schools are close to their 2016 totals after dipping in 2017, and at both schools, the majority of the assaults occurred in oncampus residential areas.
The two schools also reported the highest number of burglaries: 36 at
Yale, and 17 at UConn.
Burglary and rape were the two most common crimes on and around Connecticut campuses in 2018, according to the reports, which schools are required to publish by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.
Named for a Lehigh University student who was killed on campus in 1986, the law is intended to provide transparency about safety at colleges and universities. Schools are required to publish reports detailing crimes and incidents that occur on campus, at offcampus locations owned and used by schools, and on public property adjacent to the campus, like streets and sidewalks.
In 2018, the state’s public and private colleges and universities reported 143 burglaries, 122 rapes and 68 incidents of fondling, the most common criminal offenses. They also reported 68 cases of dating violence and 71 of domestic violence.
While Connecticut does not distinguish between the two and includes dating violence as a type of domestic violence, the federal reporting requirements separate the two: domestic violence refers to crimes against spouses, intimate partners or family members, while dating violence is defined as being committed by someone “who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim.”
Some schools report the statistics separately, while others, like UConn, list all acts of dating violence under the domestic violence category.
National movements, like Me Too and Time’s Up, have brought about more conversations about sexual assault and domestic violence, Sacred Heart University Title IX coordinator Leonora Campbell said. The heightened awareness, and better promotion of ways to report those crimes may be one reason that numbers are rising, she said.
The number of rapes reported at Sacred Heart has jumped from 4 in 2016 to 9 in 2018, and the number of dating violence cases has climbed from 3 to 10 in that same time.
That’s “unfortunate but also positive,” Campbell said, because it reflects that more students are reporting the crime and are aware of the resources available to them.
Schools are required to provide descriptions of their crime prevention and education programs in the reports, with many pointing to training and campaigns held annually.
“UConn provides prevention, awareness and risk reduction programs and campaigns to the university community on sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking in a wide array of formats throughout the year,” UConn Associate Vice President of the Office of Institutional Equity Elizabeth Conklin said in a statement. “These include new student and employee orientation sessions, topicspecific seminars and
workshops, awarenessraising events, departmental meetings and webinars, electronic communications, and the universitywide Title IX website. These trainings also include information on consent, reporting options, resources and bystander intervention.”
Connecticut schools also reported 48 motor vehicle thefts and 42 aggravated assaults in 2018; no schools reported any murders or manslaughter.
Of the 48 motor vehicle thefts at Connecticut schools in 2018, 21 were at UConn’s main campus, up from five the prior year and 14 in 2016. That’s likely due to the higher number of scooters on campus, which are considered motor vehicles in the reporting, spokesman Mike Enright said.
Hate crimes
There were 14 hate crimes reported at Connecticut colleges in 2018, a number that has not changed significantly in the last three years.
The category covers any kind of crime committed because of a perpetrator’s bias against a victim’s race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity or disability.
Quinnipiac saw the highest number of hate crimes last year, with five: three cases of vandalism due to bias against sexual orientation, and two intimidation incidents motivated by racial bias.
“The university takes all reports of hate crime very seriously and acts swiftly to investigate them,” John Morgan, associate vice president for public rela
tions, said in a statement. “When apprehended, those responsible are subjected to the appropriate student conduct or legal processes. Throughout the academic year, the university sponsors ongoing educational programs and events to build an inclusive and welcoming climate across our campuses.”
The four hate crimes at UConn Storrs involved intimidation motivated by sexual orientation and race, and one case of vandalism based on religion. The school reported seven hate crimes in 2017.
At Connecticut College, the two hate crimes in 2018 involved destruction of property motivated by sexual orientation, and intimidation based on national origin.
The University of Bridgeport reported one “intimidation incident characterized by sexual orientation bias,” while Trinity reported damage to property based on race.
There was one hate crime at Yale in 2018, an assault based on race that occurred on public property. Yale said Friday that oncampus crime at Yale has declined by about 7 percent since 2016, and is the lowest it has been since the lowest it has been since 1985.
Alcohol and drugs
The reports also detail the number of arrests and disciplinary actions or referrals for drug, alcohol and weaponrelated infractions, which shed light on different approaches to handling violations across campuses.
Eastern Connecticut State University’s 58 ar
rests for liquorlaw infractions was the highest in the state. It was one of only two schools where more students were arrested for liquor violations than received disciplinary referrals.
That reports reflect an intentional effort to crack down on underage and excessive drinking over the last six years, Eastern’s Chief of Police Jeffrey Garewski said. In 2009, the school had 779 disciplinary referrals for alcohol violations, and by 2013, alcoholrelated issues were spilling over and causing problems between neighbors and the university, he said.
Since then, they’ve “actively engaged in more enforcement,” which has resulted in declining numbers of violations overall, he said. “That’s been our goal, to get those numbers under control.”
Other schools had far higher numbers of disciplinary referrals, but few or no arrests.
Sacred Heart reported 530 liquorlaw violations resulting in disciplinary referrals, and zero arrests. That number has dropped from 570 in 2016 and 578 in 2017. Drug law violations at the school have also declined from 130 in 2016 to 108 in 2017 and 97 in 2018.
The school’s policy is to report alcohol violations to the Dean of Students, “to take action internally” Gary MacNamara, Chief/ Executive Director of Public Safety and Government Affairs, said.
While “some can debate what the punishment should be,” what matters most is that it’s consistently enforced, he said. The
declining numbers in recent years show that “it’s starting to have an impact.”
SHU was trailed by Quinnipiac with 327 liquor violations with disciplinary referrals, UConn Storrs with 325 and Wesleyan with 304.
Yale reported five arrests for the same reason, with only one disciplinary referral.
About four percent of the total liquor law infractions and nearly a quarter of drugrelated violations resulted in arrests at Connecticut colleges, while the rest were disciplinary referrals. In cases where students are both arrested and disciplined, schools are supposed to count only the arrest in the report.
Nationally, 90 percent of liquor law violations and 74 percent of drug violations resulted in disciplinary referrals from 2014 to 2016, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
MacNamara, who was Fairfield Police Department’s chief before starting at Sacred Heart last year, said it is “really important to compile the information” that’s included in the reports, and for schools to encourage students to report crimes. For colleges, “in order to address an issue, we have to understand what’s occurring,” he said.
“When parents send their children off to school, they want them to get a good education, but they want them to know that they’re safe,” he said. “I think it’s hugely important that people are given access to this information.”