USU Releases Campus Safety Statistics

Utah State University’s 2019 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report (ASR) is now available. This report provides the university’s policies and procedures regarding safety and security, crime statistics for the last three years and fire safety information. 

The Annual Security Report is available in full at: http://dps.usu.edu/clery.

This year, the reports for all USU statewide campuses were combined into one ASR. The incidents of most crimes stayed steady. 

“USU is a safe campus, and we know that this is, in part, because we have a culture of looking out for each other,” said Earl Morris, USU Public Safety’s executive director. “When those on campus report crimes or suspicious activity, it helps keep everyone safe.”

For Logan, reports of crime stayed about the same, with reports of rape, fondling, domestic violence and stalking slightly down in 2018. Reports of burglary and domestic violence were slightly up. Drug law violations and liquor law violations remained similar from 2017 to 2018. 

On the USU Eastern campus in Price, reports of fondling and motor vehicle theft rose, while liquor law violations decreased. In Blanding, there were reports in 2018 of one illegal weapon possession, two drug law violations and four liquor law violations. 

The crime statistics included in the ASR reflect only crimes reported to police that occurred on campus or on USU’s “Clery Geography.” It is important to note that some crimes are underreported to police, particularly sexual assault, domestic and dating violence, and stalking. USU recently released results of its second sexual misconduct survey, which contains more information about student experiences both on and off campus. That survey can be found at: https://www.usu.edu/sexual-assault/survey.

USU is continually working to make USU campuses more secure to support its mission of learning, research and outreach. Through campus-wide collaborations, USU has accomplished the following important milestones during the last 18 months:

• Title IX oversight at Utah State was overhauled, resulting in several new staff members: a new sexual misconduct prevention coordinator, Title IX coordinator, executive director of the Office of Equity (formerly Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity), and more recently, a new supportive measures coordinator and a new investigator to focus on USU’s statewide campuses.
• More than $100,000 was invested to add 50-plus new security cameras across campus in strategic locations.
• Fraternity and Sorority Life was reorganized to provide better oversight and accountability, and USU hired a new fraternity and sorority life coordinator.
• A new advisory board was convened to engage community members, alumni and sexual violence experts in USU’s efforts to prevention and response efforts.
• The Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information office was moved from Student Affairs to the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology to increase internship opportunities in the program and provide expert oversight. Two additional staff members were hired through university funds, and two were hired through federal grant funding.
• USU implemented a second sexual misconduct survey for students to gauge changes from 2017 in student experiences and attitudes.
• USU launched the Upstanding bystander intervention program on campus in fall 2017, and in the last academic year (2018–19), 3,977 students and employees were trained.
• For the 2018-19 academic year, 8,392 first-year students across the state completed an online sexual assault prevention course. Students new to USU fall 2019 have not all had the chance to complete it.
• Since spring 2018, USU has also launched several social marketing campaigns to increase awareness about how to respond to survivor disclosures (Start by Believing), how to be an active bystander — or Upstander — and how to date safely online.
• Utah State began using a new vendor for the Code Blue alert system to improve how the university provides information about emergencies and safety to the campus community. In conjunction with that, USU also launched a new mobile safety app that provides numerous tools to campus community members to ensure their safety and find resources when needed.
• It created a new position in public safety to lead emergency management, doubling the staff resources in this area.
• USU named a new executive director over Public Safety during summer 2019. Earl “Torch” Morris has extensive experience in law enforcement, emergency management and assessing security risks. He most recently served in a similar position at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.