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Show Clark University Gives Refunds for Poor Dorm Food Congress May Force Colleges to Reveal Campus Crime Rates - (CPS) Congress this month will start seriously considering abill that would force colleges to tell students, employees, applicants and their parents how many crimes occurred on their campuses. While many public relations-minde- d administrators oppose the bill because it could make their schools look bad, a group of college security experts resolved Jan. 12 to oppose it because it would be unenforceable. Were not in favor of the law because not its policeable, said Jan Sherrill of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Campus Violence (CSPCV), which concluded its annual conference Jan. 11. Major support for the bill comes from students, parents and faculty members who say they need to know about local crimes in order to protect themselves from them. Currently, only 352 of the 3,200 two r and colleges in the country bother to report crimes to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which tracks criminal activities. The quality of the statistics, moreover, While one school may report a uneven. is crime committed on what is legally a city- owned curb, another school may decide not to report it as a campus crime. Consequently the former college, appearing to be a dangerous sinkhole, may have a harder time recruiting students and faculty members than the latter one, which comes off looking like a relatively pacific oasis of learning. The result, students and experts seem to agree, is a highly unrealistic image of leafy, safe campuses in which residents feel so secure that they dont take basic security precautions. Its easy to get a false sense of security on campus, said University of Wyoming student Amy Bell. Students, especially freshman, think nothing bad will happen to them. Students often have a false sense of security on college and university campuses, said Rep. Bill Goodling who in September introduced the federal bill that would require schools to tell the public about the crimes committed in their four-yea- (R-Pa.- ), a dorm door open unaware that burglars robbed students in other dorms where doors were left open. If these students were properly informed, they might have made different choices," occurred, or may prop communities. Itsinterestingthatstudentsdothings on campus that they would never do at home," said Sherrill oftheCSPCV, which is based at Towson State University in Maryland. , You would never prop your front door open for the pizza man or leave the window for your boyfriend to crawl through at home,' yet it happens routinely in the dorms, Sherrill said. Just such an incident sparked the current move to force colleges to confess that crimes happen on campuses. In 1985 Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery was brutally beaten, raped and murdered in her Pennsylvania dorm room. Her attacker got into the dorm because a pizza box was propping the main door open, and Clers room remained unlocked while she slept, Jeannes parents, Howard and Connie Clery, sued Lehigh for negligence, claiming that, given the dearth of crime statistics, no one knew such an assault was likely or even possible a t the school. They were awarded settlement. $2 million in an The couple used the money to start a out-of-co- organization, Security on Campus, dedicated to help other universities improve campus safety measures. Thanks to the Clery lobbying, Pennsylvania was the first state to require schools to report crime statistics. The bill became law in May 1988. Since then, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee have passed crime stat laws, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Missouri, California and Delaware are considering similar laws. The penalty for non-prof- - it Goodling said, Wyomings Bell said she believes that Goodlings bill would make a difference, Crime(on campus) happens more often that students know. If they knew more, they would be a lot more careful, she said. Its our responsibility to get crime statisticsouttostudentssothattheycanbe aware, added Traci Bauer, editor of the Southwest Statesman at Missouri State University (SMSU) in Springfield. People are so sure this campus is safe becausetheydonthearaboutcrime, "Bauer said, relations directorPaul Kincaid who, in turn, wont give crime data to the Statesman on the grounds it would violate the Privacy Act of 1974. The Privacy Act keeps students private records from becoming public (CPS) In what may be a first in dorm food, officials at Clark University have started offering students money back if they dont like their residence hall meals. The new program, said Jack Foley, business manager of the Worcester Mass., university, is designed to dispel the notion that all college food is bad and to better accommodate the individual tastes of its student customers. It seems to be a common denominator for students at all colleges and universities to write home about the quality of the food," Foley said. Under the new plan, students unhappy with a tray can complain to the food services manager, who, if unable to concoct an adequate substitute, will credit the students university account for the price of the meal. Breakfasts cost $1.66, lunch or brunch costs $3.32 while dinner costs $4.99. Clark will share the costs of the program with Daka, a Massachusetts food service company that manages Clarksdorm cafeteria. The company, which serves about 150 East Coast campuses, intends to make it available at all of our schools," said Daka official Ron Cohen. Read the Forum! The rest of the world is Utter Chaos! - W. Germaine would be $10,000, except non-complian- ce for Tennessee and New York, where the fine would be $1,000. Goodlings bill, the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1989, would make all campuses provide timely notification of crimes and publicize their security policies. If details of crimes are not publicized, a student may unknowingly walk alone into a parking lot where several rapes Colleges May Be Dropped from U.S. Loan Program (CPS) - A U.S. Department of Education plan to help lower student default rates has angered community college officials, who charge the effort unfairly punishes two-yecollege students. There is a lot of talk about taking; away educational loans from community Thats unfair, said Randy colleges. Thompson, financial aid director at Western Nebraska Community College. Under the plan, which went into effect Jan. 1, schools with high default rates can be dropped from the Stafford and Supplemental loan programs registered at those campuses could no longer get student ar loans. This is a touchy subject. They should go after schools with a high dollar amount, not a high rate, said Jan Logan, financial aid director at Southeastern Community College in Burlington, Iowa. Two-yea- r colleges do have the highest Issue 14 January 30, 1990 default rates. In fiscal year 1987, eighteen r percent of all borrowers from public e schools defaulted, and thirty-threpercent of all borrowers at proprietary two-yea- schools defaulted. Yet Logan maintains such numbers are misleading. Since two-yecollege ar enrollments are relatively small, so is the actual number of loans in default. In addition, college students loans be tend to for less money because it takes two-ye- ar less money to go to two-yecolleges. own Southeastern; for Logans had rate of twenty-tw- o default a example, percent in 1988, a number that would have earned it probation in federal loan programs. However, if twenty-tw- o percent of the students who had loans last year eventually default, it would still be only bad loans, far less than the about forty-fou- r number at a large university. ar PRICES SIART AT THE HERFF JUNES OFFICES ARE LOCATED AT 363 E. GREATEST Number 5. SLIEIICN AVAILABLE. $99.95. 3300 office iujrs are mnday thru Thursday STORE HJCNE NUMBER 487-33- GCME AND 05. PLAICE YOUR DEGREE CN ONE SHE S., 12--5 SUHE lm. SEE OUR WIDE SEUITTCN & GRADUATION DATE CN THE OTHER! U HERFF JONES Forum Page 5 |