While overall crime on campus went down last year, incidents of reported rape and homicide increased slightly, according to 1994 crime statistics released by the University Police Department.
UPD Lt. Stephen McLain said a table of the statistics will appear in the next issue of GatorAid, a guide for SF State students. The statistics show the number of crimes reported to the UPD and include arrests made for liquor, drug and weapon offenses. McLain said since the UPD's jurisdiction covers a one-mile radius around the campus, arrests and reported crimes that occurred outside the university also show up on their statistics. He said at this time he could not break down which crimes occurred on or off campus.
While the number of reported burglaries and vehicle thefts went down last year, reported rapes increased from two to three. The only homicide to occur on campus in a decade also showed up on this year's statistics.
The number of vehicle thefts dropped to 50 from a high of 93 two years ago. The number of burglaries also decreased by half, to 27, in the same time period.
McLain credited the overall decrease in crime to more officers patrolling the campus. The rape category was broken down into more specific categories this year: forcible sodomy, rape with an object, statutory rape, incest and forcible fondling.
One case of sexual assault reportedly took place last fall when a man attacked a woman in a bathroom in the new Humanities Building. The woman reportedly fought off the assailant, but the man was never found, police said.
The men involved in the three reported rapes last semester were never charged with rape -- however, the university expelled one of them.
The only homicide to show up on the statistics was the result of a murder-suicide in Mary Ward Hall last spring. A male student who was reportedly distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend went into her dorm room and shot her and then himself. In an informal survey, a small sample of students looked over the statistics and gave their opinions about safety on campus.
"I feel safe, the things that happen here (on campus) don't really affect me. But that's because I don't live on campus so I'm not here 24-7," Tina Kharsa, a freshman psychology major, said.
"I feel safe here, but if I was a woman I would be worried. I was here when that woman got cut with a knife in the bathroom of the new Humanities Building. Now that's scary," said Daniel James Hayden, an international business sophomore.