Co-Written with Katie (Features Editor)
Posted: April 28, 2008
College Newspaper: Spectator

There’s something new on VSU’s Web site: a more accurate account of the number of forcible and non-forcible sexual assaults on campus.

As of Monday the last numbers that were posted on the police department’s Web site were for the year 2005. By Tuesday, the statistics have been updated to show the numbers for 2006. But the update came seven months too late.

Until then, Chief of Police Scott Doner, who is responsible for posting the crime statistics on the VSU police department’s Web site, and licensed marriage and family therapist Leah McMillan from the Counseling Center, who’s responsible for reporting those statistics to Doner, had not fulfilled their obligations to report those statistics as required by federal law.

“The problem is that there may have been 12 assaults this term so far, but they might not have been reported to the police so we could give a full investigation,” Maj. Ann Farmer, assistant director of VSU’s police department said. “Ever since I have been here, one of the biggest headaches is when the Counseling Center or The Haven has asked us why our statistics are not right. Well, I would say my statistics are right because no one has individually walked through the doors of our office to report a sexual assault. And if we aren’t getting the information from our other sources such as the Counseling Center, then we can’t report anything.”

Leah McMillan sees it differently.

“I can send over the numbers or stats to the VSU police when they get them in, but the police need to ask,” McMillan said.

McMillan is the liaison between VSU and the community and works closely with The Haven, Valdosta’s local rape crisis center.

“In the past Doner and I discussed only meeting once a year after the fiscal year is over,” McMillan said. “But if they would like to get the numbers more frequently they can ask for them.”

Doner said students may know more about a forcible or non-forcible sexual assault because from word of mouth.

“When I have a mother or father or student at orientation come up to me and ask about that incident at the swimming pool or something else that happened and I have nothing to respond with, it’s because no one has reported it,” Doner said. “Everyone in Langdale Hall might know because of word of mouth but I need to be notified of these things. We report what we know about. We have made a lot of progress since 1989 when these reporting requirements started, but we’re only getting some of the information.”

By law, campus crime statistics are to be posted by Oct. of each year. At VSU, statistics are compiled by academic year, which runs from July until June of each calendar year.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law The Jeanne Clery Disclosure and Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. It was named in memory of Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old freshman at Lehigh University, who was assaulted and murdered in her residence hall room in 1986. The law requires campus police and institutional officials to publicly disclose three years’ worth of back statistics for campus crime.

The VSU police department’s Web site, www.valdosta.edu/finadmin/vsupd , is where the statistics
are supposed to be reported.

The timely reporting rule according to the campus police’s Web site states the importance of how reporting incidents to the campus as soon as possible after the fact.

Because of the lack of communication between the police and Counseling Center, bulletins have not been completed and students haven’t been notified. It’s the officials’ job to make the students aware of the incidents when they occur and it’s the students’ jobs to be aware.

McMillan and Doner both said VSU has made strides, despite current inconsistencies.

“We are not UGA and we do not have offices that do only this and nothing else” McMillan said. “I think it is phenomenal we have come this far, but I am the only one who keeps the stats and I am only one person.”

According to the Clery Act, our university’s reporting jurisdiction includes offenses that occur on campus, in or on a non-campus building or property, on public property and in dormitories or other residential facilities for students on campus or within 500 yards of those listed.

“What happens a lot of time is our police agency and the city police have concurrent jurisdiction,” McMillan said. “So even though the cases occur in our area, a lot of times we don’t know about it because we don’t have a liaison.

That’s how a lot of our numbers have gotten construed and we’re trying to fix that.”

The updates made on Tuesday, only include crimes that occurred on VSU’s campus or within its 500 yard jurisdiction.

Therefore, for the 2006 academic year a total of five forcible and nonforcible sexual assaults were reported.

“The truth of the matter is that we are very open here and our intent is not to try to disguise or keep hidden any statistics about anything, by we can’t report if we don’t have anything,” Farmer said.

Doner said, “Anything we can do to help awareness is positive. There are over 10,000 students here which is over 20,000 eyes that see more than we do so if there is communication between us and the students we’d be more efficient.”

Corrections:

Leah McMillan is following the Lowndes County Sexual Assault Response Team protocol that requires collaboration with the VSU University Police.

Since 2005, McMillan has developed the process of reporting statistics on sexual assaults and rapes associated with the university. These statistics are turned over to the University police for Clery Act reporting.