In an article published by The Daily Beast ranking the nation’s top 50 dangerous colleges and universities, Prairie View A&M University came in at number 37.
Student Conduct Officer Timothy Albert said: “The numbers concern me. I would say anytime anyone reports anything where a student’s safety is in danger, I think we have to be aware of it and pay close attention to it.”
According to information published in the article, only schools with residential areas and a minimum enrollment of 6,000 students were taken into consideration for research, which narrowed their selection down to 458 schools.
Statistics consisted of three years of information, dating from 2006-2008, from campus security, crime data, the U.S. Department of Education, FBI and Secret Service, and the Clergy Act, a federal mandate requiring all schools receiving federal funding to disclose crime information provided by the campus’ Department of Public Safety annually. The data reflect incidents reported to campus or local police, not convictions.
According to statistics, PVAMU has experienced no murders, negligent homicides, or non-forcible rapes during the designated time frame. However, a total of seven forcible rapes, five robberies, two arsons, 15 aggravated assaults, 30 car thefts, and 256 burglaries were reported during the three-year period.
Albert noted that many of th0se problems occurred because students were not fully educated on the student code of conduct, something he and his office strive to improve every year.
Prairie View’s counterpart, Texas Southern University, also made the list at number 43, making TSU and PVAMU the only two Texas schools on the list.
The top ten schools on the list were Tufts University, Harvard University, Rutgers University-Newark, University of Harftord, University of Baltimore, Howard University, North Carolina Central University, Norfolk State University, Morgan State University, and New Jersey Institute of Technology.