UPDATED: Oct. 8, 2019 at 8:04 p.m.

Syracuse University’s annual security report shows a decrease in reported rapes from last year and an increase in burglaries on SU’s campus.

The report, released last week, showed 10 reported rapes on campus in 2018. This figure is down from 13 reports the previous year.

Some SU students have raised concerns about the data collection and whether it accurately reflects students’ experiences, especially with sexual assault and hate and bias incidents. The 2019 report shows two incidents of hate or bias in 2018.

According to the Rape and Incest National Network, more than 23% of female college student experience sexual assault on campus. Of that number, 80% of female victims did not report their experience to authorities.

Kyle Rosenblum, SU senior and former Student Association vice president, said it’s likely these numbers understate the scale of sexual violence on campus.

“You can look at any national survey or statistic or any data that we have in the field of sexual assault and relationship violence work, and you know that this issue is more prevelant than the reports,” said Rosenblum, who was appointed to the chancellor’s Task Force on Sexual and Relationship Violence.

Colleges and universities that receive federal funding are mandated to publish a security report by Oct. 1 every year under the Jeanne Clery Act. The U.S. Department of Education requires three years of statistics and other security information to be included in a report.

DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado said in a statement to The Daily Orange that the department hasn’t changed the way it reports sexual assaults to the Department of Education. He noted that it’s not uncommon for Clery Act statistics to vary from year to year.

“The University has also worked diligently to ensure that faculty, staff and students are provided with sexual harassment prevention training to safeguard that we are not only creating an environment that is free of harassment, but that we are promptly addressing and deterring inappropriate conduct,” Maldonado said.

In SU’s spring 2018 survey on sexual assault and relationship violence, about 111 of 479 respondents said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact on campus. Around 188 of 480 respondents said they had a friend tell them of experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact.

Of the respondents who said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact, 95% said they never reported their experience to a university official.

“There are so many barriers for students to report, whether it’s cultural or systematic,” Rosenblum said. “The (reports) are definitely not accurate in terms of what students are experiencing on campus.”

Underreporting is also a problem with incidents of racial bias, said Natalia Rice, an SU senior and member of the DPS Student of Color Advisory Committee. The committee works with DPS to provide recommendations for student safety on campus.

The security report listed three incidents of hate or bias in 2018. Rice said this number does not reflect the reality of racial bias incidents on campus. Part of the problem, she said, is the way hate crimes and bias incidents are defined and catalogued.

The safety report defines a hate crime as an incident with motivation which “in whole or part,” can be attributed to prejudice based on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin or disability.

The legal standards are often so restrictive that many instances of discrimination against students of color and other marginalized groups don’t get counted, Rice said.

She pointed to the assault of three students of color in February 2019 along Ackerman Avenue. The students were struck with what appeared to be a pistol, and a racial slur was used, according to victims who spoke at a campus forum after the incident.

The Syracuse Police Department, which investigated the incident, did not categorize it as a racially-motivated attack. DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado said at the time that it wouldn’t be appropriate for the department to comment on the case.

“How many incidents like Ackerman have happened that, because they don’t hit the ‘hate crime bias incident’ label, aren’t being put into those numbers?” Rice said.

Students also don’t always feel that it’s worthwhile to report hate crimes and bias incidents to university officials, Rice said. As a STOP bias educator at SU, she’s had interviews with students who said they didn’t report incidents of racial bias because they were convinced that nothing would be done about them. Students often told Rice they were used to that treatment on campus.

“Racially motivated incidents are more than just physical things that might happen,” Rice said. “A lot of psychological things happen on this campus, physical or mental exclusion … And the numbers aren’t reflecting that.”

In an SU campus climate survey conducted in 2015, 29% of black respondents and 24% of Latinx respondents said they had experienced “exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile conduct.” Of those people, 60% of black respondents and 72% of Latinx respondents said they believed the conduct was based on their race or ethnicity.

Kate Abogado, senior and co-chair of the DPS Student of Color Advisory Committee, said she wants to see the statistics on hate crimes and bias incidents accurately capture students’ experiences.

“The number of hate crimes should be zero,” Abogado said. “But also if they’re happening, and they’re not being documented, it should be more reflective … It should be zero in practice, and not just on paper.”

Main Campus also saw a decrease in liquor violation referrals and reported rapes, along with an increase in reported burglaries and drug referrals in 2018.

Data showed 669 liquor referrals and disciplinary actions in 2018, down 35% from the year before. Meanwhile, drug referrals rose by around 42% in the same time period to a total of 264. Drug-related arrests on Main Campus dropped 78%.

“The University has worked hard to educate students and increase awareness on the risks of alcohol consumption,” Maldonado said. “Additionally, we are providing more activities to students, particularly via Orange After Dark, as a way to encourage substance-free experiences.”

In 2018, Main Campus and the surrounding neighborhood recorded 42 burglaries, up 31% from the previous year. Maldonado attributed the spike to a series of burglaries in 14 dorm rooms in two residence halls.

Lawrinson and Watson halls were burglarized in August 2018 after the fire alarms were pulled and students evacuated. At least three suspects were arrested the following month in connection with the burglaries.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the number of reported rapes in 2018 and the number of incidents of hate or bias in 2018 were misstated. Also, the number of liquor referrals, disciplinary actions and drug-related arrests in 2018 were misstated. Also, the number of burglaries on Main Campus and the surrounding area in 2018 was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

Published on October 7, 2019 at 11:33 pm

Contact Natalie: nrrubiol@syr.edu