BY KELLIE-ANN MAXWELL // OCT. 27, 2015 // 

Every year, colleges that receive federal funding must submit a “crime log” of sorts to the Department of Education in order to keep receiving federal funding. Curry College has recently made their “crime log” available to the faculty, staff and students.

There are several ways to access the College’s “crime log” or Clery Report. You can go to Public Safety and ask to see the Campus Security Report or go to www.curry.edu and type “Campus Security Report” in the search bar. Public Safety also sent the full report to faculty, staff and students in September. It is also available here.

As a private college, Curry only needs to release an annual campus crime report. Daily crime logs detailing more current issues are not available to anyone. However, there is a bill in the works that would require private Massachusetts colleges to release daily crime logs to the public.

The Clery report was named after Jeanne Clery, a student at Lehigh University. Lehigh was once a minimum security campus in Pennsylvania, meaning that the doors on the rooms had no locks. In 1982, Clery was murdered when someone broke into her room, raped and killed her.

Clery’s murder remained a mystery for months until a student came forward and said he noticed that his roommate had a clock that looked very similar to one that Clery had owned. The roommate was brought in, questioned and found guilty.

Clery’s parents petitioned the school and government. They believed that they should have had access to the school’s crime statistics and the kind of security the campus offered. In response, the Clery Report was created.

Each pair of shoes represents seven survivors of sexual assault. PHOTO BY WOLFRAM BURNER, CREATIVE COMMONS.

Universities and college that receive federal funding must submit their Clery Report to the Department of Education no later than October 14th. The Report covers 3 years and is a year behind. For example, the 2015 report covers the years 2012-2014.

Curry’s Clery Report lists building locations, crime management and prevention, fire safety, emergency procedures, bullying prevention, security and ends with a list of on-campus crime statistics. The on-campus crime statistics include how many crimes have been committed and whether or not they were committed by students.

The Report stated that every residence hall has sufficient fire suppression systems such as fire alarms, sprinkler systems, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and evacuation plans. The Report also included policies that Curry has against different violations and misconducts, as well as safety procedures.

The Clery Report released this year included a lot of information, but there were several highlights. There has only been a single fire in the last 3 recorded years. The fire occurred in 2013 in the residence hall 886. The crime statistics at the end of the document showed that Liquor Law Violations have been consistently going down. There were 474 in 2013, 323 in 2013 and just 274 in 2014.

Although there wasn’t anything drastic reported in this year’s Clery Report, students have to take campus safety into their own hands.

Curry College’s Chief of Public Safety, Brian Greely, said, “Public Safety is everybody’s responsibility. If you see something, say something.”