Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 2016 The Effects of Students' Perceptions of Campus Safety and Security on Student Enrollment Brian Andrew Carrico safetydr1@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.edu/etd Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons Recommended Citation Carrico, Brian Andrew, "The Effects of Students' Perceptions of Campus Safety and Security on Student Enrollment" (2016). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar.
For more information, please contact zhangj@marshall.edu, martj@marshall. THE EFFECTS OF STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS SAFETY AND SECURITY ON STUDENT ENROLLMENT A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Leadership Studies by Brian Andrew Carrico Approved by Dr. Michael Cunningham, Committee Chairperson Dr. Barbara Nicholson Dr.
Karen Kirtley Dr. Tony Szwilski Marshall University May 2016 SIGNATURE PAGE ii DEDICATION God has truly blessed me with a wonderful family which has given me their never-ending support throughout my educational journey. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to my wife Jessica and our four children, Lauren, Andrew, Ellen and Gwinn for their support and understanding while I spent many evenings and weekends consumed in assignments. I would also like to thank Jessica for encouraging me to return to college several years after the completion of my bachelor’s degree.
I would also like to recognize the contribution of my late father, Keith Carrico. He was always very supportive of my education and always expressed his deep concern for my success. He was able to see me begin the journey towards my doctorate, but his battle with cancer ended in the spring of 2009. My dad and I had several opportunities to talk about life during these last days, and these conversations always included discussion about finishing my doctorate.
Along with Jessica and our children, he has been a strong motivator in my continued successful completion of the program. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all of my family, friends and co-workers who have given me words of encouragement and provided motivation to keep me moving forward during this journey. I would also like to express my gratitude for my doctoral committee chair, Dr. Michael Cunningham, who has provided me guidance and support all along the way.
Cunningham has truly been an inspiration in many ways. He has been an influential mentor to me and has always given me sincere personal attention no matter how busy he may have been. I would also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Karen Kirtley for encouraging me to pursue my doctorate in Leadership Studies.
As I served under the direction of Dr. Kirtley at Marshall University, she provided support and shared some of her personal experiences while in the pursuit of her degree to help keep me moving along. She seemed to know just when I needed words of encouragement to help boost me along. Dennis Anderson has also provided me with instruction and motivation while I have been in the program.
Although he was not on my committee, he always took every opportunity he had to encourage me and offer suggestions to help me develop to my full educational potential. He always made it a point to find out how many courses I was taking each term and would usually check on me during the course of each term just to see how things were going. I would also like to thank each of the others of my dissertation committee for their devoted involvement, encouragement, and support throughout this dissertation process. Tony Szwilski has provided me with instruction and direction since I first began as a graduate student majoring in Safety, and Dr.
Barbara Nicholson has challenged me to become a better communicator, leader, and educator by becoming a better researcher. iv CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE .v LIST OF TABLES. 12 REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 12 Crimes on the College Campus.
13 Events Which Have Threatened the Safe Image of our College Campuses. 15 The Virginia Tech Massacre of 2007. 15 Northern Illinois University Shootings of 2008. 19 Federal Actions Concerning Campus Safety.
22 The Jeanne Clery Act. 23 How College Administrators Have Responded. 49 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 49 Summary of the Procedures.
49 Summary of the Findings. 50 Security Alert Notices. 50 Controlled Access to Student Housing. 51 Females Report a Higher Level of Fear.
51 Security of Campus Perceived as a Primary Influence for Parents. 66 vi LIST OF TABLES 1 Demographics: Sex. 37 2 Demographics: Hometown Community Size vs. University Community Size.
38 3 Demographics: High School GPA. 39 5 Factors Influencing College Campus Choice. 40 6 Student Perceptions of Campus Safety. 42 7 Sex and Students' Perception of Safety.
42 8 Bivariate Correlation Between Sex and Levels of Fear. 43 9 Students' Perceptions of Safety Features. 45 10 Students' Perceptions of Parents' Thoughts on Safety Features. 46 11 Students' Perceptions of Campus Safety.
48 vii ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to determine whether student enrollment is affected by the student perception of campus safety and security when choosing a college. As the competition for students increases among higher education institutions, it is important for higher education administrators to know how to effectively present their respective institution and all of its attributes to prospective students. The targeted sample for this study was freshmen from a regional university in the mid-eastern states who are enrolled in new student seminar classes. The research questions were designed to provide information regarding the extent to which the perceptions of safety and security on a college campus affect the decision(s) of an incoming student.
1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Recent events of campus violence illuminate the ever-growing awareness of the risks and threats present on a college campus. All of the nation’s higher education campuses have either been directly or indirectly affected by the recent, man-made tragic events such as the shootings at Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, and the University of Texas- Austin. Non-violent events such as alcohol-related deaths, date rape, dormitory fires, and drug- related deaths are also further affecting the overall perception of campus safety. These types of events continue to increase and gather massive amounts of media attention which is affecting the image of a safe college campus where students could live and learn.
These tragic events which have been occurring on the nation’s higher education campuses in recent years have influenced the decision-making process for many prospective students and their parents. The factors involved in the college decision-making process historically consisted of academics, athletics, location, cost, and social activity offerings, but this increase in the perceived risk has caused safety and security to receive much more attention. The matter of choosing a college to attend is not quite as simple as it once was as prospective students and their parents are considering more closely the variables of safety and security. Today’s colleges and universities are faced with many challenges in the attempt to provide a campus which is safe and secure.
The college campus has traditionally been known as a safe haven for students, but recent tragic events have left the leaders of higher education with the challenges of preparing for tragedies that could happen on their campuses. Mental health issues have also continued to become more prevalent in society and are often displayed in the 2 students on today’s college campuses. Research from those with strong student-life administration backgrounds indicate many students are dealing with family issues, returning from active duty, dealing with relationship issues, or peer pressure which is causing them to seek violence as a solution (Hemphill & LaBanc, 2010). Parents play an important role in their children’s college decisions.
Parental perceptions and the interrelated roles of parents, students, high school counselors, and admissions representatives have also been identified as influencing factors in the final decision of which higher education institution to attend. A recent study found the five main factors which influenced parental perceptions were location, area of emphasis, campus safety, campus environment, and campus size. The level of parental involvement was found to be contingent upon the parents’ amount of education or cultural capital and the extent to which they provided encouragement and motivation to the children early in their lives. Parents were found to rely heavily upon the institutions’ websites for information regarding the safety of the institutions.
This research shows parents are involved in the overall decision for many different reasons, but ultimately for their children’s safety (Lord Thomas, 2003). Background Our nation’s college campuses have historically been places where parents will send their teenagers to gain educational and social experiences which will help them develop into self- sufficient adults. Parents expect their children to experience social differences, cultural differences, peer pressures, academic challenges, and relationship issues, but no parent wants to send their children to a campus where they will be exposed to an act of violence. Attributes of a college campus such as sports programs, academic programs, campus activities, or student 3 groups are generally easy to find, but it has not always been as easy to find information regarding criminal and violent activity on campus.
The extensive news coverage these tragic events receive makes them well-publicized and serves as a warning sign to prospective students. Violent content in the media can lead those who are in a relatively safe and healthy population to perceive life as dangerous and scary (Altheide & Michalowski, 1999). The results of this research will certainly be beneficial to higher education institution leaders as they attempt to present and provide a safe campus to prospective students. A particular event in which a female Lehigh University student, Jeanne Clery, was accosted in her sleep, assaulted and murdered in her residence hall brought attention to colleges and universities minimizing and failing to report crimes on their campuses.
As a result of this tragic and horrifying event, her parents became deeply committed to increasing campus safety and found there had been 38 violent crimes committed on the campus of Lehigh University in the three previous years. Yet none of them had been reported to the students. The lawsuit filed by Jeanne Clery’s parents forced the university to invest over $1,000,000 toward the extensive improvements of campus safety, including the installation of emergency call boxes, student transportation services after dark, and increased lighting improvement. As a result of the Clery’s efforts, one of the most substantial pieces of legislation related to higher education campus safety was introduced.
The Clery Act of 1990 was established, which would require most public and private colleges and universities to publicly disclose information about criminal activity. The enactment of this legislation created a mechanism of reporting which would place the responsibility on the higher education institution to accurately report criminally-related activity which occurred on or near their campuses. This legislation has been amended since its inception in order to more accurately portray how safe the campus really is. The Clery Act 4 requires colleges and universities to publish an annual report which documents the latest three years of campus crime statistics, including security policies and procedures as well as the basic rights of victims of sexual assault.
This annual report must be made available to all current students and employees, and all prospective students and employees must be made aware of the existence of the report and be given a copy upon request. Higher education institutions which have a police or security department are further required to maintain a public crime log and a campus-housing fire log in which criminal events and fires in on-campus residential facilities must be entered within two days of the occurrence.