After school officials at Eastern Michigan University allegedly attempted to cover up the on-campus rape and murder of a 22-year-old student, the university has started sending out campus crime reports which details the time, location and type of campus police calls. Wayne State University has been sending out similar e-mails for nearly a decade.
Here at MSU, campus police maintain an online police blotter and issue a yearly Clery Act report which discloses campus security policies and three years worth of selected crime statistics. The police blotter is required under the Clery Act. The university e-mailed students a Web link to the annual report Monday.
But is one yearly roundup of crime reporting enough?
The Eastern Michigan e-mails are part of a new 16-point campus safety plan that originated after the university’s president was fired and two other school officials lost their jobs as a result of investigations surrounding the suspected cover-up. It’s a shame it took such an unfortunate event to get Eastern Michigan to think about informing students better.
MSU police record information about the calls they receive on a police blotter, which can be found on their Web site, http://www.dpps.msu.edu/blotter.asp. Each entry includes what police were called out for, when, where and whether anyone was arrested.
But both the student body and the university could benefit if the campus police implemented an e-mail system similar to Eastern Michigan’s or Wayne State’s. While such information is already easily accessible, delivering it to students’ inboxes would create a regular free flow of information that would help students become better informed about their community and would prove MSU police have nothing to hide.
Any measures to keep communication lines open between campus administration and the students will benefit both sides and prove MSU cares about the well-being and safety of students.
There should be guidelines for such e-mails — for example, no one has the time to read about every minor in possession or minor drug charge handed out in two weeks. However, students should be aware of the occurrence of more violent and destructive crimes around campus.
MSU police created an emergency text-message system, called ETXT, in August to instantly alert students of any extreme emergency on campus or in East Lansing. Sign-up for the program is voluntary and can be done for free on the MSU police Web site. If the MSU police wanted to make a periodic crime report voluntary like ETXT, they could create a listserv with voluntary sign-up.
Sending crime reports could potentially incite more fear in the student population, make students feel unsafe around campus and start rumors about different occurrences.
However, giving students a false sense of security while violent crimes occur unnoticed would be an irresponsible failure on MSU’s behalf.
Such a situation is theoretical here in East Lansing, but after the mistakes of Eastern Michigan officials, no one can be too careful.
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