Recent reports on the safety of the Northeastern University campus and surrounding areas seem to contradict each other. The Daily Beast ranked Northeastern the 30th most dangerous college in America in their second annual survey of college campuses, according to a Sept. 30 article by The News.
Meanwhile, in 2008, Northeastern ranked as the second safest college in Reader’s Digest’s list of most and least secure college campuses. The News ran an article Sept. 16 about the decrease in the crime rate in areas encompassing Northeastern’s campus, like Mission Hill. According to the Northeastern University Safety, Security and Fire Safety Annual Information Report for 2010-2011, crime rates within the university have dropped since 2007.
So how is it possible that we ranked one of the most dangerous college campuses in America just last week?
The Daily Beast based its findings on nine different categories of crimes including murder, assault, rape, robbery and arson. Points were assigned to each category, and the final tally of points was divided by the total number of students.
Maybe the equation used to determine rankings by the Daily Beast is flawed, because the numbers don’t add up.
Of course, due to its urban setting, the Northeastern community does see a crime here and there. In July a man was arrested for shooting a gun near Fenway Park. In September, NUPD responded to a shooting on Tremont Street that injured a 30-year-old man. In 2008, Rebecca Payne, a Northeastern student living on Mission Hill, was found shot to death. And the Globe reported a 32 percent increase in murders in Boston from a year ago in a Sept. 10 article, “Spike in violence has city on edge.”
But compared to the huge amount of students living on campus – full time undergraduate enrollment is 15,699 – the rate of crime is very low, especially in those categories used by the Daily Beast to show their findings.
According to the Northeastern University Safety, Security and Fire Safety Annual Information Report for 2010-2011, burglaries on campus have dropped from 31 instances per year in 2007 to 15 in 2009. Aggravated assault instances dropped from 34 in 2007 to 12 in 2009. Instances of rape and sexual assault dropped from six in 2007 to two in 2009, and instances of arson dropped from one in 2007 to zero in 2009.
Northeastern is a college campus that is immersed in a city, and it is to be expected that crime rates will be higher than those found in other, non-urban areas. But this is not a reflection of the university, which does a commendable job keeping the campus safe. While it can be disturbing when a violent crime takes place in the city, you’d be hard pressed to find a Northeastern student who feels threatened around campus.
