by If there is an incident on campus the students will be notified through text message or email of what is happening on campus and will receive 15 to 20 minute updates. This is all enforced at any higher education institution by the Clery act.
What students should know about the Clery act and what to look for when it comes to choosing a university.
The Clery act was signed as a federal law in 1990 after a student Jeanne Clery was Sexually assaulted and murdered in her dorm. This law requires universities to disclose timely and specific information that has happened on campus and disclose an annual summary of all the crimes that have happened on campus. This is all done to help provide safer colleges around the United States.
Northampton community college complies with this law by providing information on crimes that happen on or around its campuses. Marvin Gruber talked about the main purpose of the Clery act is to inform the students of any situation that would affect their safety.
Gruber, Chief of security at NCC for 20 years, talked about some of the challenges when it comes to what to report and how to report it. If he has a question on how to report something he has a handbook on the clery act or he can call them directly for an answer.
When it comes to transferring or choosing a college on the website of your college of choice under campus safety you will find the crime logs of every incident that occurred on or around campus. Gruber talked about the importance of this is to help students pick the safest university they can find as well as inform them about the college they are thinking about choosing.
Jordan Cortez, who was a sports marketing student here at NCC and is now Attending Saint Johns for sports marketing talked about the importance of doing your research on colleges you are interested in before transferring. I asked him he if he knew about the Clery act and that all crime that happens on campus you can see on their website due to the act.
He said I didn’t know of the clery act but I knew you could find out how safe a school is but didn’t know how specific the crime logs are. When I was looking at schools to transfer too I looked at the crime around campus not on campus.
“I think if a saw that there was a lot of crime at any university I would be skeptical of going there,” Jordan said.
Jordan said if I knew I could look up and see all the crimes on campus that would play a big part in my decision. I was not just looking for a college with great academics and student life I was looking for a safe school.
I asked Haley Patry, who is a student at NCC and is studying business administration if she knew she could look up all crime that happens on all college campuses and if would affect her decision when it comes to transferring to a new college.
She said “most definitely would” If I was looking at a school and saw it had a lot of crime I would think twice before applying. This would not only affect my decision but my parents who are helping pay my tuition.
The clery act helps inform students like Jordan and Haley who may be transferring or choosing a college after high school on how safe the college they want to go is. The Clery act also helps improve campus safety across the country.
