The Clery Report: How crimes at NGU compare with other colleges
Megan Conley, Assistant Editor
Photo courtesy of Megan Conley
The 2015 North Greenville University Clery report has been released. This annual report gives a total number of crimes committed on campus at every university and is required by Federal Law per the 1998 Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.
According to the NGU website, the report is compiled of information collected from Campus Security reports, Greenville Sheriff’s Office and The City of Greenville Police Department. The report contains crimes related to campus security, alcohol and drug use, crime prevention and sexual assault.
The report gives the number of criminal offenses in multiple categories ranging from murder to burglary and compares the statistics to those from 2012 and 2013. In most of the categories, there were no crimes reported in 2014. The offenses that did have reports were aggravated assault, burglary, drug law violations and liquor law violations.
When comparing NGU to other universities in this area, the statistics seem to differ depending on the area in question.
The statistics show that the most prevalent crimes at NGU last year were burglary with 19 incidents and liquor law violations with 15 incidents. When compared to Furman University, the results differ. Furman’s burglary incidents only total eight while their liquor law violations come to a heaping total of 194.
Director of Student Life Billy Watson offers some insight as to the differing numbers the two universities share.
“I think that the biggest difference in what you’re seeing there is policy. Our stance on drinking and drugs helps us not have those issues. Sexual assault is almost always tied to alcohol and drug use,” said Watson.
Watson continued, “We want to prevent any crime and our policies help the kind of stuff we don’t have to deal with. We’re giving you a freedom to live without those issues that other universities have to deal with.”
Furman University’s report showed a total of eight sex offenses last year, whereas NGU reported none. Watson attributes this factor to the focus on safety on campus.
“I want our female students to feel safe on campus. Our visitation pokicy helps with that, people arent’t where they shouldn’t be. That would be my biggest fear, is having someone assaulted on campus. I just don’t want anything to happen to our students,” said Watson.
