UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 3, Page 2
September 16, 1993
Personal safety tips, crime stats in student handbook

     Information on personal safety, campus security, victims' resources
and a compilation of campus crime statistics can be found this year for the
first time in The Official Student Handbook: 1993-94.
     Since information on official campus judicial procedures and the
student code of conduct were already included in the annual student
handbook, Douglas Tuttle, director of the Department of Public Safety,
said, the decision was made to include the 1993 three-year statistical
report and information on personal safety and victims' rights and resources
in that publication.
     The handbook, produced and distributed annually through the Dean of
Students Office, was provided to all new students and parents during
sessions conducted during the summer New Student Orientation.
     Tuttle said he took copies of the handbook, which contains the
statistics and public safety material, to the annual conference of
International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, held in
Winston-Salem, N.C., in July. He said he received positive reactions from
representatives of other schools who thought it was an ideal way to present
the annual report and campus safety information.
     The 1993-94 handbook is available to returning students and staff
members through the Dean of Students Office, 218 Hullihen Hall. Copies also
are available at the information desk in the Perkins Student Center.
     Last fall, the University's Department of Public Safety published a
separate booklet entitled Campus Security & Personal Safety, in accordance
with federal requirements of the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act.
     Among the act's provisions was the mandate that institutions of higher
learning inform both students and employees of selected campus crime
statistics for three calendar years and provide additional information on
campus security policies.
     This year's statistics reflect the latest amendments to that federal
law. The changes broadened the reporting category related to sexual
offenses and specified the inclusion of procedures regarding each
institution's student judicial disciplinary policy.
     "We looked at the 1992 booklet," Tuttle said, "and realized that, last
year, we not only responded to the federal mandates but went well beyond
the initial requirements of the law."
                                        -Ed Okonowicz