Covenant Scots were greeted by an official email in their inbox on September 12 from the Safety and Security Department. In it was the official report containing the statistics of crime and safety reports from 2021, 2022 and 2023. This report was mandated by the The Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to record and report specific campus crime statistics and safety policies.
The report provided students with an overview of the Covenant College Safety and Security Department and procedures. “The department is composed of a director, a manager, three full-time and a number of part-time Campus Security Officers.” It also listed several crucial procedures, how to reach emergency services, how to report suspicious behavior, etc.
The document also lists Crime Prevention Programs/Safety Awareness that the program has put on in the past three years: active shooter training, women's self-defense classes, etc. It also lists the CARE team, which is a group of individual employees of the college whose job is to “Communicate, Assess, Resource, Educate.” They identify and respond to concerning behaviors performed by members of the campus community, whether that be academically, emotionally or psychologically. Their goal is to mitigate risks from those who present risks to themselves or other members of the campus community. There is also information about sexual misconduct and the official Title IX stance of the college.
The section of the most interest is the crime and incident reports. These graphs, found on pages 24-26, track the crimes and incidents that have been committed on campus. This list included illegal activities and also activities of breaking contract. Of the Criminal Offenses and Hate Crimes On Campus, the only significant increase was in Burglary, which doubled from 2022 to 2023 (six instances to 12 instances). When it comes to Criminal Offenses and Hate Crimes that occured in On Campus Student Housing, there was a significant rise in rape instances, rising from zero for both 2021 and 2022 to three instances in 2023. There was also one instance of Arson in 2023.
The violence reported also continued—several VAWA Offenses - On Campus were reported: two instances of dating violence both in 2022 and in 2023. Dating violence is physical, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse from a partner.
There were no arrests either on campus or in student housing during all three years reported. However, college-level disciplinary actions were frequent, with the most common being liquor law and drug abuse violations.
The document also included fire safety information in the report, which documented the Covenant College Fire Policies and Procedures. The document also covered a summary of fires on the college. The only fires which have been recorded were both in Carter in 2023. There were no injuries or deaths related to fire reported.