Eastern ranked the lowest in overall crime total in comparison to 11 universities, according to past crime figures.

Art Mitchell, University Police Department crime prevention officer, put together a list of crime statistics filed with the U.S. Department of Education in 2001 in compliance with the Federal Student Right-To-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-542).

He compared the information of 11 other Illinois schools with Eastern.

Eastern reported two burglary/vehicle thefts, one sex offense, one aggravated assault/battery and no robberies or murders on campus for 2001.

Eastern received a risk rating of four, the same as Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

The risk rating scale labels levels one to three as low risk, four to six as moderate, seven to eight as moderately high, nine high and 10 extremely high based on each university’s crime statistics.

The rating itself is from a national news service.

For specific offenses, the primary universities with lower rates than Eastern were Northeastern Illinois University and Governors State University, which had zero sex offenses. Also, Northeastern Illinois University reported no aggravated assault/ battery and Governors Sate University reported no burglary/vehicle theft for 2001.

However, both universities do not have any university housing.

Also, Chicago State University reported no sex offenses and Western Illinois University reported no aggravated assault/battery for 2001.

The University of Illinois at Chicago received a risk rating of 10. Chicago State University received a nine and Northeastern Illinois University an eight risk rating for all crimes total.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale received a risk rating of six.

Other schools that received a risk rating of five include Western Illinois University, Illinois State University and Northern Illinois University.

The lowest ranking goes down to a one, but there is not a university listed with a ranking below that, Mitchell said.

The 2002 criminal statistics at Eastern are listed by month and classification and will be available for viewing on Eastern’s Web site for only a short time.

The All Points Bulletin News, which provided the information for the statistics, has shut down because of bankruptcy. The risk rating scale will be pulled from Eastern’s site because the statistics will no longer be backed up with bulletin information, Mitchell said.

The information provides detail on a variety of schools outside of Illinois as well.

He said the information posted on both the sites is about three years old.

Mitchell said he cannot find another informational web site which lists and compares crime statistics, rankings or surveys of different universities.

He said the information can be checked on the Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education’s Web site.

The site contains reported criminal offenses for over 6,000 colleges and universities in the United States.

It was authorized by Congress with the 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to help potential college students and their parents research criminal offenses on college campuses.

Mitchell said in October, institutions submit their statistics from the previous year.

For example, Mitchell said, in October 2002, he submitted Eastern’s statistics from 2001.

Mitchell said some schools only submit or record statistics from the school year, but he submits statistics from the entire year.

“Crime doesn’t stop after the nine-month school year,” he said.

Public universities have to report crime statistics under federal law, Mitchell said. However, for private institutions, the process is different.