Security issues annual report of crimes

Sexual assaults, burglaries, robberies incidents increase

Ariel Schwartz Assistant News Editor

This past week, Director of Security Don Marsala sent out a campus-wide e-mail with a link to the new security statistics for the 2004-2005 school year. According to the new statistics, reported crimes of sexual assault, burglary, and robbery are all up from last year. Additionally, a significantly larger number of alcohol-related disciplinary referrals were reported.

Associate Security Director Kim Squillace noted, “I believe that awareness is one reason students may feel more comfortable coming forward to report [sexual assaults].” Last year, Vassar received a grant from the Violence Against Women office of the United States Department of Justice. The grant was used to reduce violent crimes on campus against women. Many organizations in Poughkeepsie such as the Town Police and the District Attorney’s Office collaborated with the College on the grant. Squillace speculated that the grant created better resources for students who want to report sexual violence.

Marsala noted that another reason for the higher amount of sexual assaults reported was a larger definition of “sexual assault” than in past years. “We now have to include fondling cases in this category,” he said. He agreed with Squillace that the grant might have increased awareness of sexual violence on campus as well.

Burglary is defined as the act of someone unlawfully entering a dwelling and taking something. It is different from robbery, which is the forcible taking of an object from a person. According to Squillace, students have varying definitions of what constitutes a burglary. “We’ve had students report when someone came into their rooms and borrowed an item or came in and used an item. Some people think of it just as breaking and entering. It’s still a burglary even if nothing was taken, because the door was still broken and property was damaged,” she said.

The most striking difference in the security reports from the last two years was the number of disciplinary referrals related to liquor laws. In the 2003-2004 year, there were 34 reports, while in the 2004-2005 year there were 76.

“People are probably drinking more and maybe we’re catching them more,” said Marsala.

He also noted that another factor could have been the large dip in Mug attendance last year. Marsala commented that since people weren’t drinking in the Mug as much, they might have been drinking more in the residence halls and having more unregistered parties.

Squillace agreed with Marsala’s assessment. “The only way to explain it is that more students are drinking,” said Squillace. “We’re not doing anything different than we’ve been doing through the years…we’re still doing the same procedures.”

Full security statistics for this year and years past are available at http://security.vassar.edu/statistics.html.