WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2007
Wednesday Edition: Campus Security
No doubt, there will be a lot more attention to security on
college campuses in the coming months.
Here is a Web site that focuses on that
issue.
According to the site, two major sources collect college and
university campus crime data -- the U.S.
Department of Education, which under the Jeanne Clery Act gathers statistics from
more than 6,000 schools, and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which provides data for about 400 schools. Find the most recent statistics from each
government agency here. The site says statistics reported under one program may not match those reported in
the other because of differences in reporting
standards.
A couple of years ago, the feds opened a new site for campus crime reporting. Here are the resources the site provides:
- Crime
data for a campus that you select. (Get the campus'
last three years of crime data and general information about the
campus.)
- Aggregated crime data for a group of campuses that you select. (See the total
number of selected crime data for the past three years for the group of
campuses.)
- A comparison between a target campus and the average of a group of campuses for
selected crime data in a selected year(s). (To get the report, define the target campus, the comparison group of campuses, crime data and the year for the crime data.)
- Selected crime data for selected campuses in a selected year. (Choose a campus group, crime data and crime data year(s).)
Advice for the Days AheadI thought you would find this to be useful. I am passing along an e-mail from Angie Kucharski, station manager at
WBZ-TV Boston. She is
the former KCNC-TV Denver news director. Angie was news director in Denver when the Columbine shooting story broke.
She wrote this letter to
WSLS-TV Roanoke producer Matt Tansey on a Poynter listserv. Both Matt and Angie gave me permission to share the letter with you. I think Angie provides great advice on how to manage the days ahead:
Hi, Matt --
I have been thinking of you and wishing you all of my best thoughts and prayers. Your strength and leadership will be very important in these next few days. A few things that were helpful to me... never forget that you want to do right by your community.
You will have networks and others around for the next few days/weeks, but you have to remember to do what you think is right -- and not just what they are doing. Your work today will plant the seeds for the stories that will become a part of your coverage fabric for the next decade plus. Competition can be invigorating, but not at the expense of making mistakes. The stakes are too high.
As far as your coverage -- pay attention to your community. You will get your tone and style from them. As for you -- just be ready to be human and be okay with that. I can only assume that you have been going non-stop for the past day. At some point, you will stop to take a breath and everything will hit you... the enormity of the situation, the loss and the pain.
Find time to reconnect with your family and friends. You'll need that to keep you nourished as you try to keep others on your staff nourished. If someone hasn't -- make that call to get a counselor or two into your newsroom. Your staff won't expect to start having the feelings they will. Keep doing the temperature checks on them -- and when you can -- get them a break. Be patient with them on the phone... they may get testy and impatient and angry. That's to be expected. That may be one of the only ways they can be human when they are expected to be objective. Listen and be a good coach and have a good plan -- and don't leave them hanging. And, never forget that what you are doing is so very important.
Your viewers and users need you today and tomorrow more than they may have in a very long time. Hang in there -- I know you're up to the task. We're thinking of you. And -- let us know if you need anything.
Angie
Violent Crime on College Campuses RareNewsday puts some things in perspective:
Violent
crime is relatively rare on college campuses compared to society as a whole,
according to federal campus crime statistics.
The 32
homicides yesterday at Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus easily surpassed the
average annual total of 16 murders and manslaughters reported on all American
campuses over the past six years, according to U.S. Department of Education
statistics. The deadliest year over that span was 2002 when 23 people were
killed on campuses nationwide.
The
administrators of 8,771 college campuses across America reported a total of
7,600 violent on-campus crimes in 2005, from murder and manslaughter to
forcible sex, robbery and aggravated assault. Those nationwide statistics have
remained fairly constant over the six years they've been centrally collected.
The campus
rate in 2005 works out to about 42 violent crimes per 100,000 students enrolled
at all those institutions, a much lower rate than the general population of
those 12 and older that year, which the U.S. Department of Justice estimated to
be about 2,000 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.
Al's Morning Multimedia
My single favorite multimedia piece so far from coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting has been
this one from The Washington Post. It is simple and quiet with
no narration. It is a piece about students and townspeople praying at a local
church. It is close up and human.
April 26, 2002:
Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium; Erfurt, Germany
A
former student at Johann Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany, kills
16 people before turning the gun on himself. Most of Robert
Steinhauser's victims are teachers.
April 28, 1999:
W. R. Myers High School; Taber, Alberta
A
14-year-old boy opens fire with a .22-calibre rifle inside W. R. Myers
High School in Taber, an Alberta town about 200 kilometers southeast of
Calgary. The boy, who can't be named because of his age at the time of
the crime, kills student Jason Lang, 17. Another student, Shane
Christmas, 17, is wounded, but recovers from his injuries. The shooting
takes place a week after the Columbine High School massacre.
April 20, 1999:
Columbine High School; near Littleton, Colo.
Two
teenage students arrive at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo.,
wearing long black dusters, the trademark of a small clique of
outsiders at the school known as the Trenchcoat Mafia. Although Eric
Harris, 17, and Dylan Klebold, 18, weren't inside members of the
clique, they adopt its look as they carry in an arsenal that includes a
semi-automatic rifle, a semi-automatic handgun and a sawed-off shotgun.
They first open fire in the school cafeteria and ultimately kill 12
students and a teacher, as well as wounding 24 others. Then they kill
themselves. The shooting shocks the world for its ferocity, sparking
debates on gun control, school security, goth culture and video-gaming
culture. Police in several U.S. towns report foiling attempts to
emulate the massacre.
Murderabilia
There is a dark market out there that trades in memorabilia from
killers.
ABC News
reports:
Web sites
like murderauction.com have been popping up since
2001, when eBay banned the sale of murderabilia.
Andy Kahan,
the director of the mayor's Crime Victims Office in Houston, has been fighting
against the sale of murderabilia [or "murderbilia"] for years on behalf of
victims' families.
"The
industry's grown leaps and bounds," Kahan says. "You just shouldn't
be able to rob, rape and murder -- and turn around and make a buck off of
it."
These
Web sites claim to offer everything from California serial killer Roy Norris'
fingernail clippings to a lock of Charles Manson's actual hair. The more
notorious the serial killer, the higher the bids. John Wayne Gacy's art work sold
on murderauction.com for as much as $10,000.
Yesterday, murderauction.com featured a handmade holiday card from Terry Nichols.
In 2005, Newsday took readers inside the
business of murderabilia.
In 2000, BusinessWeek interviewed a leading expert/critic of
murderabilia sites.
This morning, there were 66 Charles Manson-related items
on eBay and 27 items related to Tim McVeigh.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
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