Iowa State - 2nd Least Safe Campus in America

[ornryactor]

Originally Posted by MontyBurns

Actually, the survey is flawed.

All of the questions are things like "do the dorms have an attendant", "do the dorms have self-closing self-locking doors", "do you have to show ID to get into campus building", "are there blue-light phones and cameras" in parking lots and all over campus, and "how many police do you have". The top ten of their "safest" campus list is filled with schools in Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Chicago. Of course campuses in urban areas that are in many cases not safe will score better on those questions. They have security buildings and more police because they need them -- we don't. They only looked at safety measures, not crime statistics.

Actually, that's not true. According to their "Methodology" PDF, they did ask for crime statistics in a number of categories. They plugged those numbers into a mathematical formula that weighted serious crimes more heavily. However, I see no report containing those final numbers, nor what exactly those numbers would mean. The report is still a load of poorly-designed crap, but they do take actual crime rate into account, on some level.

Unless they have some insane definition of "attendant", 100% of ISU's residence halls have staff members available 24/7. There is ALWAYS someone on call in every single building. Community Advisors that are on-duty are required to stay in the building, and can be anywhere within a couple of minutes.

I have quite a lot of interaction with campus life units at ISU, especially the Department of Residence and the Office of New Student Programs. We intentionally do not have sessions during Orientation covering binge drinking, drug use, or rape. There are multiple campus units that have extremely capable professionals that can help students with each one, and incoming students are given information on who to contact and how if there is a problem or if they want to read the University's guidelines. We do not have separate presentations on these three topics, so the questionnaire made us answer 'No', despite the fact that we do provide the information elsewhere. The other campus units all conduct regular presentations on the respective topics, open to all students- not just new students. They are also 'on-call' to do the same presentations for any group or individual that requests it. The other, smaller reason we don't include these topics as fully separate presentations is because of Iowa State's unique approach to orientation. Our Orientations in June are much shorter affairs than most schools have. They are less than two days long, and are not only for the incoming student but also for the families. This is a basic introduction to campus and the school, appropriate for everyone who comes along. There are many more student-focused activities and sessions during Destination Iowa State, in the week before classes begin in August. Between the high number of trained professionals, the orientation/DIS arrangement, the low incidence of rape on campus, and the low incidence of hard drug use or binge drinking among freshmen, there is no need for us to spend valuable time covering those topics when they will hear about them elsewhere.

I'm irked that they put so much weight on needing to show your ID in order to even enter the library. I'd never even heard of that before this survey. It might be great for a school in the middle of a high-crime ghetto, but it's an absolutely ridiculous proposition for schools like ours. Any crime that happens in Parks is being committed by students anyway, so that bizarre policy wouldn't help anything.

This is a stupid questionnaire that I'm disappointed the University even bothered responding to.

[Phaedrus]

Originally Posted by mramseyISU

Iowa doesn't seem to be as great as everybody thinks for safety and raising a family. I read something a week or two ago (wish I could find a link) that had Iowa ranked in the mid 40's out of the states you'd want to raise a family.

These "surveys" always tend to raise my dander, because the "categories" they rate are often irrelevant to anyone except those who only choose to live in urban areas.

We lived in one of the "family friendly" cities at one time. It might've been "family friendly", but we had 3 pedophiles living within 2 blocks of us.

[CycloneWanderer]

I would like to see a statistic of how many students out of every 100 students on campus is a victim of a crime. They could break it down into different categories and then it would be directly comparable. If at one school there are 5 out of every 100 students assaulted and at another, which has greater prevention methods, there are 7 out of every 100 students then wouldn't you be statistically safer at the less-outfitted school?

[Phaedrus]

I just read the survey, the methodology and the results. I find it ironic that Boston U., where I received my Master's, is one of the "safest" campuses in America, while nearby Worcester is one of the "least safe".

Anyone with a full and functional brainpan could walk around either campus for like a minute, and realize that Boston is a LOT less safe than Worcester, in any intelligent comparison.

[TykeClone]

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

We lived in one of the "family friendly" cities at one time. It might've been "family friendly", but we had 3 pedophiles living within 2 blocks of us.

Maybe that's what they meant by family friendly

[cyeah]

Originally Posted by mwitt

Didn't the University of Iowa have a problem recently with a serial sexual assaulter? Has that guy even been caught yet?

Maybe they mixed us up.

He doesn't play for them anymore.

[cys_av8r]

DRAKE is 89 and we are second to last? I wouldn't let Chuck Norris walk around the Drake area at night.

Wait till Cotlar reads this. I bet it has something to do with Keno.

[RyCy04]

Originally Posted by Phaedrus

We lived in one of the "family friendly" cities at one time. It might've been "family friendly", but we had 3 pedophiles living within 2 blocks of us.

Whatever happened to keeping that just between us?

[cybsball20]

I know when I was in school it didn't seem like there was a huge focus on safety but that was over 5 years ago now. I know at Florida you had to swipe your card to get in just about any door on campus. It would take about 5 card swipes just to get from the front door of the dorms to your room. I could get from class to my dorm without even unlocking a door at ISU. I think alot has to do with the safe climate but you never know what can happen.

[Flag Guy]

Depends on the hours and buildings but yes, in general during the day you don't need a card to get anywhere during the day. At night they lock buildings after 10, and in Friley you can vote to have your house locked but that rarely happens. Ground floor houses tend to lock their doors on the weekends...

Only time my house floor was locked was after a dispute between a girl on our floor and her ex... we locked our doors 24/7 for a few weeks until that was resolved.

Doubt this survey considered stuff like the ability to lock doors though...

[Wesley]

Unfortunately this survey will be used as gold and as a recruiting tool for schools, just like they have done in the past. So whyo feeled the surveys out for Ames? EIU Clones?

[cybsball20]

I see no reason not to lock doors 24/7.

[mg4cy]

I agree on the thoughts on Creighton, why an A?, I spent a lot of time growing up on or near that campus. I feel ISU and college towns are much safer than the universities in more urban settings (Drake, Creighton, etc). May be safe on campus, but don't stray off campus. Probably why Creighton has invested in all of the safeguards that aren't necessary at ISU.

[Cyclone42]

I disagree with this totally. For example, they ranked Creighton at 38th, giving it an "A". I live very close to the Creighton campus; it is right on the southern edge of the infamous 'north Omaha', and there is no way I'd walk that campus at night. I felt much safer walking around the ISU campus at night than I'd feel walking around Creighton during bright daylight.

I wonder how they came up with their data.

[cmoneyr]

I never felt unsafe walking to night exams or whatever on campus. I wonder what they'd give someplace like VT?