By Marisa RussellNews Editor On Oct. 1, the 2015 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report was released to the Hofstra community. The compilation of issues contains instances from 2012-2014 and is published in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The document is meant to inform the community of different policies that involve campus security and share statistics related to crime and fire safety on campus. Director of Public Safety Karen O’Callaghan said the department is required to get the report online by Oct. 1. The law requires every university across the country to provide their respective communities with updated information and reports of crime from the previous three years. This year, legislative changes brought updates to the reporting of crimes in the community. “With the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the changes because of Title IX, we changed how we classify sex offenses,” said O’Callaghan. In reference to the law changes, “sexual offenses – forcible” are now classified as either rape or fondling, and “sex offenses – non-forcible” are now classified as incest and statutory rape. O’Callaghan also added, “The VAWA requires us now to look at domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, these were added in 2014, so we went back and put the numbers in for 2013 and 2014. The VAWA changes really are what dictated us having to change the formatting.” Even with the extensive law changes, the numbers are still consistent over the past three years. In 2014, the number of rapes reported was 4, and in 2013, the number of forcible offenses reported was 5 total. These numbers represent the number of cases reported to the police. “We haven’t seen any changes, especially in the area of sexual misconduct or sexual assault, [the numbers] have been pretty steady. You’ll see we have four, five, six reported acts and we realize, we understand completely that it is the most under-reported crime out there,” said O’Callaghan. With the low number of reported sexual violence acts, Public Safety and many other departments, including the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement are working to educate students. Still, many community members feel undereducated and unaware of what is going on. “I wasn’t aware of the public safety reports, but I definitely think that any kind of sexual assault should be reported to us in a more transparent way. In the same way we get updates about robberies, we should get updates about sexual assault,” said Cass Lang, junior public relations major. In recent efforts to increase transparency, Public Safety has published a new Students’ Bill of Rights and other crucial documents. “You’ll see that if you look at this report, probably the best thing that we have is this new policy, which is the student policy prohibiting discriminatory harassment, relationship violence and sexual misconduct because all of the definitions and what we have to track are in here, but it tells more too. It tells about student’s rights and it talks about all of the laws and the changes,” O’Callaghan said.
The document can be found online, along with the 2015 annual report, and includes terminology that can be misconstrued and is necessary to understand the reported incidents.
Even with the addition of these documents, Karla Bradley, senior sociology and women’s studies double major and policy chair for It Ends With Us, a student-run sexual assault awareness organization on campus, feels that more needs to happen. She said, “There is a continued lack of transparency in what the reporting process looks like. Efforts such as the recent publication of student rights are attempts to address this, but there still needs to be more work done to let students know what it means to file a report.”
She continued to speak about how an increase in education needs to occur, as many students are unclear on the definition of sexual assault, in relation to the other terms. “A student may have been sexually assaulted, but because they don’t know how to explain what happened to them, they may not seek help from Public Safety.” Bradley said.
With the installation of a new full-time Title IX coordinator, Lara Nochomovitz, the University is working to change that lack of education.
“Hofstra is working not only to decrease the number of incidents that are unreported, but also sexual violence and harassment generally. Hofstra’s efforts to improve and promote reporting and to combat sexual violence/harassment began well before I arrived,” said Nochomovitz in an email.
Her efforts, working closely with Public Safety and the It’s On Us campaign, are moving forward from the work that the previous coordinator, Jean Peden-Christodoulou, started.
Lang commented on the campaign and said, “I think the University has definitely taken steps to spread awareness, especially by taking part in the national ‘It’s on Us’ campaign, but as with any situation involving such devastating statistics [and] numbers, there is always more to do.”
While sexual offense reports remained close among previous years, reports for liquor law, drug law and weapons law violations all decreased from 2013 to 2014. The 2014 violations, respectively, were 22, 72 and 0, in comparison to 2013’s reported 49, 121 and 1.
With all of the numbers now reported, Public Safety is working to increase training among officers and provide university staff with policies and procedures on what to do when a sexual offense is reported to them. In relation to this, Bradley said, “Being able to respond appropriately to a disclosure is key in making sure students feel safe and supported in moving forward in the reporting process.”
O’Callaghan agreed that students’ safety and comfort is the most important piece of the puzzle. “This is about making sure students are comfortable in their environment that they can pursue their academic pursuits and do that in a comfortable non-threatening environment,” she said.
Though the education of policies and procedures listed in the safety report comes mostly from the university and departments like Public Safety, students can also take action to educate themselves.
“I think the most important message I would like to get to students is we’re all part of this community and we should all take an active role in the safety of the community and part of that means being a good bystander,” O’Callaghan said. “If you see a student that might be getting into a situation that could be a problem, step in, and “step in” could mean simply giving a call to Public Safety.”