By Jordan Bolker
Staff Writer
Recent increases in specific crime statistics on campus can be attributed to “sheer numbers” of offenses and improved reporting, according to two campus officials.
The top two criminal offenses that experienced the most growth between 2011 and 2012, according to the newly updated annual NCC crime report, were assault with a 500 percent increase and sexual offense with a 60 percent increase. By looking at these percentages, it can make students, faculty and staff feel a little uneasy about their safety at North Central College. But these crime gains are not always necessarily about the number of crimes committed.
“It’s basically just sheer numbers,” said Kimberly Sluis, dean of Students. “It’s important to know that crime statistics are based on reported situations, whether or not the person responsible has been caught.”
“We [also]have an increase in the number of students,” added Director of Campus Safety Jared Bogan. “Not every instance that has happened on this campus is reported.”
This year, the number of undergraduates and graduates attending North Central College has topped more than 3,000 students. This kind of growth in the NCC community may be beneficial for those high school seniors and transfer students as they apply for college this fall but it can also raise the risks of safety of students who may come in contact with potential threats on campus.
Drug and alcohol violations have also gained in numbers in disciplinary action and criminal arrests. According to the statistics, 18 percent of the drug and alcohol violations reported have resulted in disciplinary actions, lower than the number of violations ending in arrests.
“In every drug violation that’s reported, we call the Naperville police,” Sluis explained. “They have the discretion in those cases of whether or not the person or people are going to be arrested or if they’re going to be issued a citation. We don’t, however, call the police every time there’s an alcohol violation because there are some cases where they’re not involved in our policy for liquor reports.”
NCC campus rules regarding what happens to students who are charged with these misdemeanors are a bit more rigorous than the federal laws and consequences that are enforced to other citizens of Naperville and elsewhere. Take this example: Two NCC students were caught with an illegal drug; one student actually was using the drug and the other student was simply standing there. The police will arrest the person who owned that drug. In the case of the College, on the other hand, they will charge the second person who wasn’t using the drug with disciplinary action because of the policy that you cannot use or be in the presence of illegal drugs.
So what is Campus Safety doing to make sure that students are safe and that they are well-informed and comfortable to report instances?
“Specifically, we have two professional officers on duty 24/7/365,” said Bogan. “[With them], we patrol the entire campus whether it would be using our two squad cars, on foot, or on our Segways. We don’t have a specific pattern of patrol, but we have midnight officers and others who work morning and afternoon shifts so we always have a continuous presence on campus.”
Campus Safety also partners with the Resident Assistants and other staff members of Residence Life, where they are the “eyes and ears” of all the NCC residence halls. The College has more than 50 RAs that patrol the hallways and the rooms if necessary and are also “on-call” constantly if a situation occurs at any time of the day or night.
Bogan also explained that an increase in crime around the College is not necessarily about the crime itself growing, but the increment in comfortability that the students have to come and report more often if something happens on campus grounds.
“I’m really looking to grow the Campus Safety initiative and I want individuals to know and take away from [Campus Safety] is that we are a place to come and report,” Bogan said. “Although it’s unfortunate to see those statistics go up and up, the fact of the matter is that students are now feeling more empowered to come and report. That’s a great thing. They may feel that they don’t want to report because they’re either scared, embarrassed, or they don’t want to deal with what will happen after they report. We want to break down those barriers and say, ‘We’re here to help you.’”
“I’d say that we have made a big push to increase the likelihood that people who were assaulted could come and report,” Sluis added.
Freshmen students were handed out postcards [of sexual assault]reporting options during their orientation, for the purpose being that those are kinds of crimes that mostly go unreported. They, along with other NCC students, are then encouraged more to report those kinds of incidents so that Campus Safety can respond appropriately and find the person responsible and who might pose a future threat to the campus.
“One of the things that we [Campus Safety] have improved on over the past two years, with the help of my parking and transportation coordinator, Emanuel Pavlopoulos, and a few other officers, is our presence on the Web,” said Bogan. “We also have our new Green Dot program.”
He added that Campus Safety also uses Facebook to distribute weekly safety reports, safety tips, and Naperville construction notices.
