Campus Security Procedures and Programs
Campus Crime and Security at Postsecondary Education Institutions / Chapter 3
The Campus Security Act requires postsecondary institutions to publish and distribute an annual security report containing information about campus security policies and crime statistics. The report is to be distributed annually to all current students and employees and, upon request, to prospective students and employees. This section describes the formats institutions use for compiling the annual security report information and the ways in which they disseminate the information.
Most institutions (87 percent) compiled annual security report information for students and staff (table 14), although the proportion ranged from 64 percent of other less-than-2-year institutions to 98 percent of public 4-year institutions. Similarly, small institutions were less likely to compile security report information than were larger institutions, ranging from 76 percent of institutions with less than 200 students to 100 percent of institutions with 10,000 or more students. Almost all students (98 percent) attended institutions that compiled annual security report information (not shown in tables).
Frequently used approaches for compiling annual security report information were as a stand-alone publication about campus security, used by 70 percent of institutions that compiled an annual security report, and as part of the text of another student or employee publication, used by 49 percent of institutions (table 14).[12] Annual security report information was published as an article in the campus newspaper by 20 percent, in electronic format (e.g., on the campus computer network) by 6 percent, and in some other format by 9 percent of institutions compiling an annual security report.
The formats used for compiling annual security report information, particularly the use of a stand-alone publication about campus security, varied by institutional characteristics (table 14). Public and private 4-year and public 2-year institutions generally were more likely to use a stand-alone publication about campus security than were private 2-year and all less-than-2-year institutions. Institutions with campus housing, especially those with a high percentage of students in campus housing, were more likely than institutions without campus housing to use a stand-alone publication, and larger institutions were more likely than smaller ones to use this approach. Public 4-year institutions and institutions with 10,000 or more students were particularly likely to compile security report information in an electronic format compared with other types and sizes of institutions.
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Format for annual security report\1
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Compile Stand-alone Part of text
Institutional characteristic annual publication of another Article in Electronic Other
security about campus student or campus format format
report security employee newspaper
publication
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All institutions\2 87 70 49 20 6 9
Type
For-profit less-than-2-year 79 54 56 1 0 10
Other less-than-2-year 64 52 57 2 4 7
Public 2-year 93 77 49 34 9 8
Private 2-year 88 60 47 10 1 12
Public 4-year 98 91 46 42 22 11
Private 4-year 91 82 40 30 7 9
Percent of students in campus
housing
No campus housing 83 61 53 14 3 9
Less than 25 percent 99 79 50 31 10 11
25 percent or more 92 90 36 29 11 8
Metropolitan status\3
Large city 85 65 50 21 5 8
Mid-size city 92 70 45 23 5 11
Urban fringe 85 76 46 16 6 7
Town or rural 84 71 56 21 8 10
Institutional size (enrollment)
Less than 200 76 56 55 3 (+) 10
200 to 999 88 65 50 19 3 10
1,000 to 2,999 95 83 39 26 8 7
3,000 to 9,999 99 86 44 36 12 8
10,000 or more 100 89 49 51 27 10
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(+) Less than 0.5 percent.
1/Based on those institutions that compile an annual security report. Institutions could indicate multiple formats for compiling their annual security report information. Thus, the percents for the annual security report format sum to more than 100 percent.
2/Data are for postsecondary education institutions in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that participate in federal Title IV financial aid programs.
3/Analyses by metropolitan status exclude institutions in Puerto Rico, since the Bureau of the Census does not assign locale codes for Puerto Rico.
NOTE: Zeros indicate that no institution in the sample gave the indicated response.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Postsecondary Education Quick Information System, Survey on Campus Crime and Security at Postsecondary Education Institutions, 1996.
Institutions that compile an annual security report usually had that report available at student orientation, registration, and/or other student activities (85 percent), and frequently had it available in various offices and/or building lobbies around the institution (67 percent; table 15).[13] Mailing upon request to prospective students and/or employees was used by 64 percent of institutions that compile an annual security report, and mailing upon request to current students and/or employees by 60 percent of such institutions. Only 19 percent of the institutions that compile a report used a direct mailing to each current student and/or employee.
Half of the institutions that compile a security report and that have campus housing distributed the security report in student residence halls. About a third of the institutions that compile a security report posted it on campus bulletin boards, and about a quarter placed the report in campus mailboxes and/or published it in the campus newspaper. Other dissemination approaches were infrequently used.
There was some variation by institutional characteristics in dissemination approaches used. For example, public 4-year institutions generally were more likely than other types of institutions to use direct mailing to each current student and/or employee, mailing upon request to current students and/or employees, and mailing upon request to prospective students and/or employees.
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Direct Mailing upon Mailing upon Mailing
mailing to request to request to to every Posting on
Institutional characteristic each current current prospective household Placement the campus
student students students in the in campus computer
and/or and/or and/or institution's mail boxes network or
employee employees employees enrollment Web page
area
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All institutions\2 19 60 64 1 25 5
Type
For-profit less-than-2-year 1 32 34 (+) 4 0
Other less-than-2-year 3 58 52 2 8 1
Public 2-year 22 78 81 4 35 6
Private 2-year 14 51 54 1 17 1
Public 4-year 47 87 93 1 39 18
Private 4-year 32 71 80 1 44 5
Percent of students in campus
housing
No campus housing 10 49 52 2 17 2
Less than 25 percent 32 74 84 2 35 8
25 percent or more 36 79 84 (+) 43 9
Metropolitan status\3
Large city 17 54 63 1 20 4
Mid-size city 19 56 62 2 25 3
Urban fringe 21 59 62 1 28 5
Town or rural 22 72 73 1 31 6
Institutional size (enrollment)
Less than 200 3 37 38 (+) 9 (+)
200 to 999 12 58 63 1 23 3
1,000 to 2,999 35 79 83 2 42 5
3,000 to 9,999 38 78 88 3 38 7
10,000 or more 44 87 91 5 40 23
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Available in Available at
various student
Distribution offices and/or orientation, Publication Posting on
Institutional characteristic in student building registration in the campus Other
residence lobbies and/or other campus bulletin campus bulletin
halls\1 around the student newspaper boards
institution activites
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All institutions\2 50 67 85 22 36 13
Type
For-profit less-than-2-year (#) 47 85 2 43 12
Other less-than-2-year (#) 52 71 3 24 16
Public 2-year 53 81 86 34 38 12
Private 2-year 49 58 81 15 29 10
Public 4-year 63 90 93 44 27 16
Private 4-year 45 75 83 32 34 14
Percent of students in campus
housing
No campus housing -- 58 83 16 39 12
Less than 25 percent 57 89 86 33 36 12
25 percent or more 46 76 88 29 25 16
Metropolitan status\3
Large city 51 64 80 25 35 11
Mid-size city 53 68 85 24 34 12
Urban fringe 45 61 86 18 36 15
Town or rural 51 74 87 21 34 13
Institutional size (enrollment)
Less than 200 27 50 85 7 38 12
200 to 999 54 60 76 19 37 12
1,000 to 2,999 46 84 89 28 32 9
3,000 to 9,999 56 86 92 39 35 17
10,000 or more 62 86 88 45 29 16
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(+) Less than 0.5 percent.
(#) Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
-Not applicable, based only on those institutions that have campus housing.
1/Based on those institutions that have any campus housing.
2/Data are for postsecondary education institutions in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that participate in federal Title IV financial aid programs.
3/Analyses by metropolitan status exclude institutions in Puerto Rico, since the Bureau of the Census does not assign locale codes for Puerto Rico.
NOTE: Zeros indicate that no institution in the sample gave the indicated response. Percents are based on those institutions that compile an annual security report. Institutions could disseminate their security report in multiple ways. Thus, the percents for the dissemination approaches sum to more than 100 percent.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Postsecondary Education Quick Information System, Survey on Campus Crime and Security at Postsecondary Education Institutions, 1996.
[12] Institutions could indicate multiple formats for compiling their annual security report information. Thus, the percents for the annual security report format sum to more than 100 percent.
[13] Institutions could disseminate their security report in multiple ways. Thus, the percents for the dissemination approaches sum to more than 100 percent.
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Campus Crime Statistics Campus Security Procedures and Programs