The University of New Haven Police Department (UPD) released their annual Security and Fire Safety Report earlier this month.
Following a detailed rundown of definitions and legal guidelines for the items measured in the report, the document provided a severely broad rundown of the safety measures and events recorded in recent years on campus. The information, which did not begin until page 27, was displayed in a table format outlining records from 2020 through 2022.
In 2022, three rapes were reported in residential facilities on campus — a drop down from the eight reported in the previous calendar year. There was also one account of domestic violence reported in 2022, the first of any in recent years. We cannot know much more, in a proper respect of victims’ privacy.
There were two incidents of aggravated assault in 2022, following a clean streak of none in 2020 and 2021. 2022 also saw two
burglaries, one of which occurred in an on-campus residential facility, and one motor vehicle theft. These numbers are identical to those in the previous year. It would be helpful here to know just slightly more on the location of the incidents, so that students can be more mindful of where violence and malice have been successfully inflicted on the small campus.
Drinking holds its place on every college campus, but students have no transparent idea of how often punishment is dealt for those underage. In 2022, the university filed 47 liquor law violations which were referred for disciplinary action. This is almost 30 less from 2021, which recorded 76 of said violations. No arrests have been recorded from 2020-2022.
Drug usage reports have been much less frequent on campus, with 14 disciplinary actions in 2022 and 16 in 2021. Like with alcohol, no student arrests have been made.
In a diverse campus like the one of the University of New Haven, protection of values surrounding diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are of importance to the community. Last calendar year saw no hate crimes reported on campus, and only one per year reported in 2021 and 2020. It can be noted that the report defines a hate crime as “an offense that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.” This bias can be as a result of a person’s “race, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or disability.”
The report also tallies unfounded crimes in relation to the university, which are deemed such if “sworn or commissioned law enforcement personnel make a formal determination that the report is false or baseless.” While there were none reported in 2021-2022, there were three on record in 2020. The university’s Tuscany campus in Prato, Italy, saw no reports of criminal offenses or disciplinary referrals in 2022 or 2021.
From a perspective standing inside of the student body, the tallies of incidents in which students are victims feel severely underreported. This comes in a combination of students being afraid to speak up and an environment that is not doing enough for students to feel comfortable opening up about being a victim of any sort of on-campus incident.
Sexual violence is much more common on campus than this report reflects, and other incidents of violence or malice occur with a certainty of more frequency than this report seems to have accounted for. Students need to be given a platform to feel more comfortable reporting their experiences so that these incidents can be accounted for and those in perpetrating positions held liable. At the very least, we need the administration to know that these minimal numbers do not tell the entire story.
Full copies of the report are available digitally and across campus. It was also distributed in a PDF format to faculty and staff, but was not made equally accessible for the student population, and was not properly advertised for students to educate themselves on the campus climate from a safety angle. For more information, or to report any concerning incidents, contact UPD.
