Sexual assaults near the cemetery and Autzen Stadium, a home invasion with a man touching a woman’s face, drunk driving accidents involving students — these are the things that have been filling students’ emails and media in recent weeks. Reports of crimes on campus and in neighborhoods where students commonly live have been prevalent, exposing the darker side to campus living.
But how safe is our campus really? How are we in comparison to other schools in the Pac-12 Conference?
The United States Department of Education puts out statistical data every year with numbers reported to them from all universities in a report called The Campus Safety and Security Data. It is important to note that the data provided in this type of report is not perfect, but it gives a general idea of what goes on among these campuses.
The good news is that the University and other Pac-12 schools have few occurrences of major criminal offenses, such as murder and robberies. But burglaries, drug- and alcohol-abuse violations, and sexual assaults are at times disturbingly common. Let’s take a closer look.

Criminal offenses

This is the broadest category showing numbers in offenses like murder, robberies and motor vehicle theft. None of the schools in the Pac-12 had occurrences of murder or manslaughter at the time of data collection. Robberies and arson are also relatively low all-around.
Sexual offenses were also rather low. The University had a total of 15 sexual assaults throughout 2011. Even so, Stanford University and UCLA had numbers twice that of the University, with 37 and 36, respectively, reported cases. UCLA has about 14,000 more students than the University; Stanford has about 4,000 fewer.@@stanford…sheeettt!@@
Of all of the categories, burglaries tend to be the highest for each school. Stanford came in first with 325 reported burglaries, while the University came in last, with a mere 28. Oregon State University had 53 burglaries, almost twice the University despite being nearly identical in size.
All in all, this portion of the statistics makes the University look quiet compared to some of the other schools.
Arrests and disciplinary actions

This is the category that shows what might be expected from college campuses. While measuring drug and alcohol violations, this data tells us one thing: College students like to drink and party.
This is especially true at this University. In terms of arrests, we seem right on par with some of the other schools, at 464 arrests. The University of Colorado had 770 arrests, Washington State University has 220 and infamous party schools Arizona and Arizona State universities have 846 and 1,055 arrests, respectively, for alcohol abuse. However, each of these schools is quite a bit larger, with 33,010 students at Colorado, 45,943 students at Washington State, 38,767 students at Arizona and 68,064 students at Arizona State. @@I think these numbers would make more sense with student population sizes from each university cited – as below, too@@
Yet it is the disciplinary actions at this University that soar well above average. Last year, the University reported 2,047 disciplinary actions for alcohol abuse. Schools like Arizona, UCLA, California and Washington State — all bigger than the University — barely exceeded 1,000. The University is second only to Colorado, who had 3,695 reported disciplinary actions. Colorado is also bigger, with about 11,000 more students.
“There’s a dense population of 18-to-25-year-olds,” said Jenna McCulley,@@http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=273&PageID=3997&cached=true&mode=2&userID=2@@ a Eugene Police Department spokesperson. “It is pretty obvious that plays into the spike in alcohol violations.”
Understandably, the campus area also has a much higher rate of alcohol- and drug-related violations compared to the rest of Eugene.
“People tend to move to quieter neighborhoods if they want quiet,” McCulley said. “This creates a hotspot of those who party right next to campus.”
In terms of on-campus crimes, part of the reason that the University has higher numbers than other schools is the code of conduct. Each school has one, and each one is different. Compared to others, the University’s code might be little more strict.
“Even if it’s just an empty alcohol container, students will be in violation of our code,” said Jennifer Summers, the interim director of substance abuse prevention. “Other schools might not have it laid out that way.”
Another aspect is what and how we report statistics.
“We report on all violations that have been referred for action by the campus conduct system,” she said. “Not all violations have been found responsible. The actual number of violations where students were found responsible is lower than what is reported.”
Drug abuse numbers rival those of other schools. University students received 193 arrests and 183 disciplinary actions. Colorado was the one with the most once again, with 1,288 arrests and 2,691 disciplinary actions. The Arizona universities came in second and third, with 399 arrests at Arizona State and 387 at Arizona despite much fewer disciplinary actions. The University had quite a few less than these schools but still put up higher numbers in arrests than schools like Utah (49) and the University of Washington (14).
“Our numbers are as high as they are because the UO takes on a comprehensive, environmental approach in addressing alcohol and other drug issues,” Summers said. “The UO’s Department of Public Safety and Eugene Police Department have regular presence on and around campus to foster a safe environment, but also to enforce University policies and state laws.”
With that said, incidents are constantly being reported, specifically about certain neighborhoods and areas around campus. Knowing these statistics is a start to understanding what campus crime and safety is actually like.