PULLMAN – WSU has been listed as the safest school in the Pac-10 and the state recently.
The Pac-10 ranking comes from the Daily Beast website. It follows on the heels of a report by State University.com that ranked WSU as the safest college in the state.
“We live in a very safe community where people look out for each other,” said WSU Police Chief Bill Gardner.
Chris Wuthrich, WSU dean of students, attributes part of WSU’s safety record to efforts to raise awareness.
“Our public safety staff works hard to educate our students and make everyone aware of their rights and responsibilities as a member of the community,” said Wuthrich.
The Daily Beast combed data over the past three reporting years in nine crime categories ranging from homicide to robbery to car thefts.
Officially, WSU has very little violent crime, reporting no homicides, two aggravated assaults and one robbery over the last three years.
The online publication reported that, in general, campus crime prevention is improving and incidence of major crimes is in decline due to better enforcement and more video cameras.
Stanford University, University of California-Berkley and Southern California are the top three most dangerous Pac-10 campuses, according to the Daily Beast.
The gathered data includes the three most recent calendar years of campus security and crime data (2006-2008) compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, the FBI and the Secret Service in conjunction with the Clery Act, the federal mandate requiring all schools that receive federal funding to disclose crime information annually.
The data reflect incidents reported to campus or local police, not convictions.