STAFF EDITORIAL
The Runner Staff
California State University, Bakersfield underrepresents the crimes that happen on its campus. While CSUB does comply with the federally mandated Clery Report, it does not give the public, or its students, an accurate snapshot of the crime on campus.
It would make more sense to see, before committing to a university, all aspects of the university. Much like a campus tour, students should be able to see an accurate and detailed list of the crimes on campus.
Unfortunately, the Clery Report does not accurately depict the amount of incidents related to CSUB.
Claudia Catota is the assistant to the President and the Title IX coordinator. She alongside Lieutenant Williams, a Clery button on University Police Department’s logging system are responsible for determining an incident “Clery reportable.”
By being selective on what gets recorded in the report, our campus appears to be crime-free, but actually is not.
The Clery Report for the last three years has zeros in almost every category of crime. As much as we as students would love to believe this about our university, it is not factual.
The invalidity of this report makes us, as journalists, question those who create and oversee this report and poses a question regarding whether or not the CSUB administration is attempting to hide something.
If the Clery Report is being viewed by potential students and their parents, would we not want to be as transparent as possible?
The editorial staff recognizes that the school is only complying with the Clery Report’s parameters; however, the Editorial board demands the CSUB administration, with the help of UPD, produce a separate list that includes all of the crimes on campus.
That list should include all of the reports of sexual assault, sexual misconduct, burglary and stalking. While victims should remain anonymous, the report should contain four essential elements regarding the information provided.
Firstly, the information should have an accurate description of what the incident was. It should not contain ambiguous language, and it should call the crime by its actual name.
The second piece of unambiguous information should be the time and place of the incident.
The third piece of information should explicitly state whether the suspect was a student, faculty member, or a person with no relation to the university. This should be done without naming the victims.
The fourth and final piece of information the report should include the outcomes.
Student Housing, UPD, the Title IX coordinator, and the campus advocate should all keep files of everything recorded by students, staff and faculty. At the end of the year, much like the Clery Report, the campus needs to disseminate that information to all of the campus.
There is a separate report made by CSUB called the Title IX Annual Report. This is a report that is put together by the Title IX coordinator and unlike the Clery Report, it is not federally mandated.
The CSU Office requires that universities and colleges report all Title IX violations.
Unfortunately, this report is not sent out to everyone on the campus. Although it is available to view, it is difficult to find.
The report is a start, but much work is needed to truly be transparent and accurate. We cannot benefit the university by only reporting positive stories.
We as students also have to stop relying on the report and claiming that we have low crime rates when in fact, we are not sure what our crime statistics actually are.
