The number of reported liquor-law violations, forcible sex offenses, drug-related arrests and hate crimes increased on campus in 2013, according to Clery Act crime statistics released last week. Burglaries and drug-related referrals decreased.

The Jeanne Clery Act is a federal law requiring colleges to release annual crime reports and keep a public crime log.

“We’re a greater population than we’ve ever been, so crime goes along with the amount of people,” Chief of Public Safety David Barger said. “So one could argue, we’ve been pretty much the same for years, but as the population grows [an increase in crime] is just taking into account the population.”

Liquor-law violations

Associate Dean of Student Affairs Seann Kalagher said alcohol is related to many of the crimes that occur on campus.

“Alcohol impacts a lot of other incidents we deal with, particularly if you’re looking at incidents of assault issues, even some of the bias-related issues we deal with,” he said.

Kalagher said most liquor-law violations come from freshmen and sophomores.

There were 663 reported liquor-law violations on campus in 2013, according to the statistics. The university reported that 593 of these violations occurred in student housing, while the other 70 violations occurred in areas other than residential housing.

In 2012, there were 634 reported liquor violations on campus. Meanwhile, the university reported 682 liquor violations in 2011.

“The number of alcohol violations we’ve had really hasn’t changed significantly over the past several years, even though our student body has increased,” Kalagher said. “So if you look at it just from the percentage of the student body it’s gone down, even though our violation numbers have been consistent year-to-year.”

Sophomore Rachael Tarbell said students are just getting caught drinking more often.

“I feel like it’s easier and easier to catch people,” she said. “That’s why the numbers going up, people are getting stupider and stupider.”

The Clery Act only asks universities to report liquor violations where students break the law, such as when underage students drink or students provide alcohol to minors, Kalagher said. This means alcohol violations, like when students get in trouble for intoxicated behavior, are not included in the Clery statistics. Even if a student is not found responsible for the liquor-law violation, the case is still included in the Clery report.
Drug violations
There were six reported drug-related arrests in 2013, according to the statistics. In 2012, the university reported three drug-related arrests, while Quinnipiac reported five drug-related arrests in 2011.

However, referrals for drug-related violations decreased in 2013. The university reported 79 drug-related referrals in 2013, as compared to 111 in 2012 and 161 in 2011.

Six of the 79 drug-related referrals occurred in a non-residential area on campus, whereas 73 occurred in student housing.

Forcible sex offenses
The university reported four forcible sex offenses in student housing in 2013. This is an increase from 2011 and 2012, when the university reported only one sex offense.

Chief of Public Safety David Barger said he cannot truly tell whether this means there were more sexual assaults on campus or if more students came forward to report this crime. Barger said more students may be aware of the resources available for sexual assault victims.

“I think they’re coming forward,” Barger said. “I believe that now there isn’t that fear of reporting it, that they know something is going to be done.”

Kalagher said more students are reporting sexual assaults to the university after Quinnipiac implemented a new Title IX policy in the fall of 2012. He said by the spring of 2013 more students were taking advantage of this policy, which investigates sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, partner violence and stalking.

Quinnipiac must report any time someone tells the university he or she was sexually assaulted on campus or on university property, Barger said. It does not matter if the victim or perpetrator was not a student; this report would still be included in the Clery Act statistics.

However, Clery does not allow the university to include sexual assault or crime reports that occur off-campus, such as in New Haven, Barger said. Parents who look at the Clery statistics want to see what happens on campus, so including off-campus crime would skew the numbers, he said.

Tarbell said she thinks the university is underreporting the number of sexual assaults on campus.

“I feel like that number’s too low, even for here,” she said.

But Kalagher said Quinnipiac can only report sexual assault incidents that students tell the university about.

“None of us are saying that we know that’s the only amount of number of sexual misconduct situations that happened on campus,” he said. “What we are saying is that was what was disclosed to us.”

Sophomore Ruth Onyirimba said the university should talk more about sexual assault in the classroom. This would cause more students to report sexual misconduct, she said.

“I feel like people are either too scared to say something, like with every campus, or just straight up don’t realize that it’s sexual assault for them to report it,” Onyirimba said.

Hate crimes

Hate crimes increased from four in 2012 to six in 2013. There were zero reported hate crimes in 2011, according to the statistics.

Of the six hate crimes in 2013, one incident was race related, one was religious based and four were related to sexual orientation.

In 2011, colleges only needed to report hate crimes related to issues like murder, assault and burglary, so the university had zero hate crimes, Kalagher said. Now, the hate crime definition includes intimidation and vandalism.

Most of the hate crimes Quinnipiac deals with are related to students writing bias-related words on university property, Kalagher said.

Onyirimba said she thinks there are more hate crimes that occur on campus.

“This campus is not very diverse and not very culturally aware,” she said. “[There are] some things that happen on campus, that people may not think about on a day-to-day basis…The amount of times I hear the n-word on this campus makes me very uncomfortable.”

Other crimes

Burglary on campus decreased slightly. In 2013, there were nine cases of burglary, eight in residence halls and one elsewhere on campus. Meanwhile, in 2012, there were 10 cases of burglary in student housing. In 2011, there were only three reported cases of burglary.

Barger said he does not think the university has seen more burglaries, but that Public Safety has gotten better at knowing when a crime occurred, versus when a student has misplaced something.

The number of reported aggravated assaults in student housing has stayed at three assaults for the past three years, according to the statistics.

Disciplinary referrals for weapons possession also decreased. There were no reported cases of this in 2013, but five cases in 2012 and seven cases in 2011.

The Clery Act changed their rules for what is classified as a weapon, Barger said. Colleges no longer need to include possession of paintball guns or BB guns in the report.

In 2013, there was only one fire on campus. Barger said this was a stovetop fire. In 2012, there were three stovetop fires, and there were zero in 2011.

Check online to learn about the reported hate crimes in 2013.