The site, using information from university postings, disperses crime data for 101 U.S. colleges and universities, and will post data for 80 more campuses within weeks, the site’s founder, Colin Drane, said.

But creating the site was not without its challenges.

Most university buildings do not have addresses, so they had to be plotted using latitudes and longitudes, Drane said.

Once that was finished, crime data dating back to March 2008 was loaded onto the site and are updated daily.

Students also can sign up to have crime alerts sent to their cell phones. The updates are sent every 24 hours, but students cannot filter the types of crime are sent to their phones.

“On a given day on a typical university campus, there’s not a lot going on. We don’t think people will be inundated with alerts,” Drane said.

The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety also posts up-to-date crime information on its own Web site, dpps.msu.edu, and will send e-mails to inform students of serious threats.

The police Web site was recently redesigned to make information more accessible.

“Anything that’s going to help the public be more aware of their surroundings is a good thing,” MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.

Students also can sign up to receive emergency text messages from MSU police.

But MSU police do not send automatic crime updates to students unless there is a serious campus safety concern.

Theater junior Alisha Saddler occasionally got e-mails about crime on campus, but since she moved from the dorms she has heard less about MSU crime.

“If a serious crime is taking place, there should be postings on that, but I don’t feel threatened in any way not having that information right now,” Saddler said.

Drane said he would like to make the updates more automatic.

He is working with city police departments near college campuses to include local crime data with university crime data.