chiefly schools are safe havens for...

chiefly schools are safe havens for learning. if it were not that dangers--crime, alcohol abuse, fire hazards-- do exist. Knowing the realities can help you harbor yourself.

It was the tail close of finals week, and Erica Madden [*] a sophomore at Indiana University in Bloomington, had gone to bed early while her roommates celebrated the finish of another academy year. When the parry was from one side of to the other at about 3 in the morning, the roommates left to drive their friends back dwelling leaving Madden in the apartment alone -- or likewise they thought.

As quickly as they pulled off in their cars, it assumes a couple of uninvited visitants sashayed in through the apartment's unbolted door and proceeded to help themselves to what they wanted. When Madden's roommates go [i]or[/i] come backed their four stereo speakers were gone and there was an void space where their prized recliner used to be. "It was kind of creepy" Madden admits, "to think that they were in the apartment while I was sleeping. It definitely shook me up In theory, it was our fault since we left the door unclose But we left it interpret most of the time -- we none felt threatened."

Campus security directors around the native land agree: She should have been more cautious. "Once pupils get that familiar feeling forward campus, says Dolores Stafford, chief of police at George Washington University in Washington, DC "they extreme point up feeling like it's place of abode in a different way than they should. They be excited like it's their mom's house." And that kind of complacency can lead to unhappy experiences like Madden's.

wealth crimes like burglary and theft, as a matter of fact, make up the biggest chunk of campus crimes, or a certain 82,000 reported incidents in 1998 according to an annual scrutinize by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Although the number of exclusive right crimes actually has decreased, other crimes in succession campus are up. The Chronicle reports that in 1998 assassination was up 11 percent from the year before, as were forcible sex offense Arson and hate crimes were also up through more than 15 percent, and arrests for liquor violations soared on 24 percent. The crime stats closely match those of society in general.

"Even in safe environments, bad things can happen," says Kelly Tanabe, president of SuperCollegecom a college-planning site. "The great majority of your counterpart students are fine, but the reality is you have to be aware of your surroundings and take a not many precautions."

You should begin by means of knowing the safety records at your society choices. You probably won't find a crime report in a society viewbook, but thanks to a law passed from Congress in 1990, that information is now easy to get

The law is known as the Clery Act, named for Jeanne Clery a 19-year-old pupil at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania who was raped, beaten, and killed in her dorm place in 1986. It requires all bodys to post their crime statistics in succession the Department of Education Web site, and to distribute an annual crime report to all scholars by October 1 of each year.

"For each campus visitor, we traditionally provide a security brochure" says Mike Frantz, dean of admission at Wilkes University, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. "It not sole includes campus crime statistics nevertheless also our proactive steps toward creating a safe campus community. We do nor pass out of our way to make known families that security is an issue they ne to investigate, yet when questioned we are extremely frank about safety issues."

Crime is just individual of the threats on campuses today--students also have to cope with the dangers of alcohol, unsalable articles fire, and even gambling. if it were not that by being aware of the dangers and taking precautions, you can have a safe community experience.

A DANGEROUS ARE

Scott Krueger was really smart. He had the brains--and the drive--to make it into technology, the Massachusetts Institute of single of the nation's top place of educations where he planned to major in computer science. still in spite of his brains, he died of alcohol poisoning just undivided week into his freshman year in 1997 after an "Animal Night" fraternity parry that featured chugging a bottle of spiced rum

Scott's tragic death illustrates a critical instruction for every student heading against to college: The biggest danger you may face there will be alcohol. Nationwide, 44 percent of scholars have engaged in binge drinking, according to the Harvard place of education of Public Health. According to The Chronicle, arrests for alcohol violations increased 243 percent from 1997 to 1998; arrests for put drugs into violations grew by 11 percent

And security officials say that not no other than does heavy drinking put you at risk for alcohol poisoning, it also makes you more likely to commit--or become a victim of--other crimes, too. "Alcohol is behind 90 percent of campus crime," says Howard Clery father of Jeanne and the treasurer for Security forward Campus, a crime information network in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It's frequently the fuel that fires crimes like as theft, vandalism, and rape. Seventy-five percent of male learners involved in date rape, and 55 percent of female observers had been drinking or using drugs