Graph courtesy of Matt Cancilla of Dominican Star

By Dana Bitto

October 30, 2013

On Sept. 30, Campus Safety and Security emailed all students, faculty and staff a copy of Dominican’s annual safety and security report, consisting of crime statistics from 2010 through 2012.

The report outlines emergency procedures, university contact information and Dominican’s policies regarding drugs, misconduct and student, faculty and staff behavioral guidelines.

During 2010 to 2012, at both campuses there were 13 total burglaries and 11 drug law violations. Additionally, alcohol law violations dropped significantly since 2010, where there were 105 violations in 2010, 83 in 2011 and 33 in 2012. In total, there were 221 alcohol violations.

At the Priory Campus, only two general offenses for the Priory parking lot murder occurred in 2011. With this incident, there were no Dominican students, faculty or staff involved.

In comparison to other schools, Dominican’s statistics have held the bar high. At neighboring university Concordia University Chicago, between 2009 and 2011, there were 19 residential burglaries and 35 total on campus, 13 residential drug violations and 149 residential alcohol violations.

At St. Xavier University located on the south side of Chicago near suburban Oak Lawn, between 2010 and 2012 there were three burglaries in the residence halls and four total on campus, 15 drug violations in the residence halls and 24 total on campus and 199 alcohol violations in the residence halls and 214 in total on campus.

Security explained that the day-to-day population of students and staff has resulted in the shift between crime statistics on the Main and Priory campuses.

“The Priory Campus consists of only two buildings; the Main has 11 and the Priory houses around 60 resident students in a year, compared to the 500-550 housed at the main campus,” Joel Nayder, assistant director of Campus Safety and Security, said.

Dominican has maintained a positive image and remained relatively crime free, but staff members still believe that students could be more knowledgeable about keeping Dominican a safe campus.

Robert Babcock, assistant dean of students and director of Residence Life, explained what Dominican could do in order to continue with a decrease of crime reports filed each year, particularly in the residence facilities.

“We need to continue to educate our students about our policies,” Babcock said.

Although Dominican has maintained a good reputation in regards to safety and security, Nayder explains that there is always room for improvement, stating that crime is unpredictable, so it is important that the DU community becomes aware and involved.

“The Department of Homeland Security started a campaign in 2010 to help raise awareness about the importance of reporting suspicious activity,” he said. “We would like to see the Dominican community adopt the ‘See something, say something!’ slogan. If we can get everyone to be more aware and to get involved, we can be more affective at reducing crime.”