The Reporter

Vol. CXXI Issue 07 ^jsicS: >*S THE EPORTER Stetson University | DeLand, Fla. Stetson's 2012 crime statistics released Eleanor Roy Editor-in-Chief In compliance with the 1965 federal Clery Act, Stetson released its crime statistic incidents on and near campus from the past three years. Reported crimes for the De- Land campus include forcible sex offenses, hate crimes, liquor law violations and aggravated assaults, among others. Public Safety Director Bob Matusick said that there were zero off- campus crimes because that category applies to locations like Spec Martin Stadium, which the university did not use until this year. "It's property that is related to Stetson but is not considered contiguous to the campus," he said. He clarified that the off-campus category does not include incidents involving students off campus, necessarily. "There's been students arrested in downtown DeLand for different things," Matusick said. "Clearly that's not on campus, but it doesn't fit into any of those things so we don't report that stuff." In addition to releasing the annual crime statistics report, colleges and universities receiving federal financial aid must also keep a crime log of all crimes that occurred in the last 60 days. This log must include the date, time, general location and nature of the crime, and has to be accessible to anyone who requests it. Stetson's crime log can be requested at the Public Safety office. The full Stetson Clery report is available on Public Safety's website under the "annual reports" tab. Crime statistics on campus* from 2010-2012 Sexual assault missing from Public Safety Daily Reports Eleanor Roy Editor-in-Chief Public Safety excluded a sexual isault involving two students from le Public Safety Daily Reports, say- ig the agency often chooses not to sclose information about "sensi- ve" crimes. The Reporter learned >out the assault through the crime gs made available under the Clery ct, which requires universities to ■ep track of crimes involving the liversity. "You're restricted from releas- g, by the state of Florida, certain lounts of information with a sex Fense," Public Safety Director Bob atusick said. "And then we choose t to release any of the information :ause we're a private university d we're going to protect the victim well as the accused until the case included." Public Safety Administrative ;cialist Dee Carpenter, who emails the Daily Reports, said the sexual ault was not included in the Oct. >aily Reports because it is still an ^ve case that is being investigated, wever, there are multiple other ve cases included in the Daily torts, like the car break-ins that pened the week of Oct. 7 and the bike thefts that occurred throughout October. Matusick said that this is common practice for sex offenses. Because Stetson is a private university, Public Safety does not have to release any information about crimes other than the date, time, general location, and nature of the crime in the crime logs. "But we don't have to release that information [in the Daily Reports], so we choose not to," Matusick said. Matusick said that the same practice also applies to some other crimes. "I think we look at them on a case-by-case basis and [if] something is very sensitive and could affect the student, the victim, then we would look at 'what do we want to release as a result of that?' Clearly we will release what Clery says we have to release by federal law," Matusick said. "But as far as the other information, if we feel like it is going to adversely affect the victim, we'll look at it and determine whether or not it's in our best interest and the victim's best interest to have that information out there." The Public Safety Daily Reports are sent to The Reporter through an email list that includes other recipi ents like Deans of Students Christopher Kandus-Fisher and Rosalie Carpenter, along with Executive Director of Holistic Wellness Lynn Schoen- berg, among other Stetson administrators. Carpenter confirmed that she and Kandus-Fisher were made aware of the assault after it happened. "Yes, we were both aware when the report came in and I worked with Public Safety to coordinate immediate follow-up," Carpenter said."Florida State Law protects the name of the person who received the unwelcome behavior, and we chose not to release the information of the alleged either." The crime logs, made available under the Clery Act, are stored in Public Safety's computer database and contain the date, general location, and nature of crimes that occurred in the past 60 days. They can be requested by anyone at any time through the Public Safety office. Crime logs for the week of Oct. 1 showed the sexual assault report, but the Public Safety Daily Reports prepared and sent out by Public Safety did not. Upon learning this, The Reporter included the assault information in its publication of the Daily Reports in the Oct. 3 issue. Student Government Association President Dudley Joseph said he believes that if the university is going to disclose some incidents, it should disclose all of them. "Crime is crime," he said. "I just think that if those are things that happen on campus, then that needs to be disclosed. Don't cherry pick what 'better crime' is better to be reported." According to the DeLand Police Department incident report, the sexual assault took place in the University Village Apartments early in the morning of Sept. 4 when the victim and her friend returned to the suspect's apartment after going out to bars downtown. The report notes that there was no alcohol or drugs believed to be involved. After her friend got a ride home from Public Safety, the victim reportedly "felt safe and decided to spend the night as friends," with the suspect. According to the report, the victim made it clear that she did not want to have sex with him, but he forced her to. The report says that the victim wanted to seek advice from adults and family before reporting the incident, and that she does not want to press charges for fear of having to go to court. However, Matusick said he does not know what the victim will choose to do. "I can't comment on that," Matusick said. "I don't know what she's going to do. It's still under investigation." Carpenter said that "when we are notified of a situation that may involve a form of sexual harassment, misconduct or assault we respond immediately with four priorities: to investigate, to end the behavior, to remedy the behavior and to provide sanctions that are reasonably calculated to prevent the reoccurrence of this behavior from happening again." What's in this issue © Updates on the campus' smoking policies News, page 3 © Bad Luck releases new album with a supportive audience ASE, page 4 © Women's volleyball continues with their strong season Sports, page 6 © Photos from the fraternity bid reveal Back, page 8