For the first time, colleges and universities — including the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville — included reported incidents of stalking, dating violence and domestic violence in annual crime and safety reports required under federal law.
UA had four instances of domestic violence reported in 2013 but no reported dating violence or stalking in its annual safety report released Wednesday.
The report encompasses campus crime at UA buildings not on the main campus.
Mary Wyandt-Hiebert, director of UA’s sexual-assault and relationship-violence prevention office, praised the changes to federal law mandating the new reporting requirement in what are widely known as Clery reports.
However, the reports underestimate the total cases involving students, she said.
“A lot of these crimes happen off campus, but they happen in private residences, and so those types of things don’t make the report. It doesn’t fit the definition and what is required in how the Clery report is structured,” Wyandt-Hiebert said.
The report listed six reported forcible sex offenses in 2013 compared with five in 2012, but Wyandt-Hiebert said the most accurate sexual-assault numbers come from surveys and research. Nationally, a White House report released in April cited research that found one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college.
UA police Capt. Gary Crain said the totals come from police reports but also incidents reported to health center advocates and other university officials. For sex offenses, the totals include any credible report, regardless of whether any criminal charges were filed, he said.
For the mostly on-campus areas included in the report, UA saw a surge in liquor-law arrests, with the number more than tripling to 107 arrests last year compared with 31 in 2012. UA also had an increase in alcohol-related violations referred for university discipline, with 469 incidents last year compared with 397 in 2012.
Crain said the rise in arrests happened because of a change in state law regarding minors in possession of alcohol.
Now, “if a person has it in their body, if they’ve been drinking, then that’s possession,” Crain said.
The liquor-law categories don’t double-count incidents, however, with the numbers showing a clear rise in alcohol-related reports.
“I don’t know if it’s an actual increase or if it’s just more, better covering of the areas,” Crain said, explaining that resident assistants in university housing may report the violations referred for university discipline.
Drug arrests increased but less dramatically, with 141 arrests last year compared with 125 in 2012. UA had fewer drug-related incidents referred for university discipline — 91 in 2013 compared with 135 in 2012.
A freshman UA student, Chandler Thomas, died on Dec. 2, three weeks after being hospitalized when he ingested what is believed to have been a synthetic drug. Text messages described Thomas buying “acid” sold to him by another UA student, Luke McMullen, who was convicted in June of felony drug dealing.
After Thomas’ death, UA sent an email to all students alerting them to the dangers of synthetic drugs, including hallucinogens known as 25i or 25I-NBOMe.
Other types of crime happened less frequently at UA in 2013 than a year earlier. No robberies were reported, compared with three in 2012. Only two aggravated assaults took place compared with six in the previous year. Burglaries decreased sharply, with 28 reported incidents compared with 42 in 2012.
The report tallied 14 motor-vehicle thefts, up one from 13 such thefts reported in 2012.
UA reported four arrests for illegal weapons possession in 2013, the same as a year earlier. University policy prohibits taking guns on campus, even in vehicles. The UA System board also has a resolution in place prohibiting faculty and staff members with concealed-carry permits from carrying handguns onto any system campus.
The Clery report details not just crime totals, but also security policies for UA. This year, it notes that victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence or stalking may report the offenses to a university compliance officer, Wyandt-Hiebert’s office or other university officials.
With the expanded reporting policy, “maybe that’ll encourage them to come forward, where before they may have not felt anything could be done,” Crain said.