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Feb. 1, 2021 Campus Voices | News | Sex Trafficking | Review | Media | Crime | Feature
LESS PEOPLE
C A M P U S P O L I C E R E P O RT A D RO P I N T H E
PHOTO BY A.J. RUBIO | THE WICHITAN
Statistics from university police department indicate a notable drop in the number of campus crimes in 2020. EMILY BEAMAN REPORTER very year, the Police Department conducts a Security and Fire Safety Report comprised of data collected from January to October of that year. The newest report, released in Dec. 2020, includes the statistics from the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. Compared to previous years, there was a significant drop in the number of crimes that were committed on campus. The two categories with the highest amount of reports were assaults and burglaries. “The primary location for offenses are, unfortunately, originating out of our residence
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halls,” MSU Police Chief Patrick Coggins said. MSU’s campus is able to house up to 1,768 students. According to Kristi Schulte, the Director for Residence Life and Housing, the 2019-2020 academic year had approximately 1,600 students living in campus housing. When campus opened for the fall semester of 2020, the number of students living on campus decreased to around 1,500. The drop in on-campus residents could be due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown Schulte suggested. “We closed housing in March, and housing was only open to students who had very specific circumstances,” Schulte said. The only students allowed to remain on
campus during the shutdown were international students, those classified as homeless, those considered independent on financial aid and those who presented a safety concern about leaving campus. “We went from 1,500 students on campus to fewer than 200,” Schulte said, “and we saw even smaller numbers in the summer semester.” Laura Hetrick, Title IX director and coordinator, reached the same conclusion as to why crime dropped. “I think a part of [the decrease in crime] was because so many people went home at spring break and did not return,” Hetrick said. On the other hand, Coggins believes that an
absence of students on campus could possibly be a reason to see an increase in crime. “When you begin to reduce the number of people around, there’s less to be seen, less people seeing… People can take advantage of a lesser number of people around,” Coggins said. Campus organizations, such as the Title IX Department, have also taken steps over the last year to attempt to decrease crime on campus. Some examples of presentations by the department in 2020 were Bystander Intervention, Consent, What A Healthy Relationship Looks Like, Stalker Awareness and Self Protection. These would be given to anyone anywhere on campus. Mainly set up in residence halls or the
