Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Student Overnight Travel Information

 

According to a federal law known as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, Hobart and William Smith Colleges are required to disclose “statistics concerning the occurrence of certain criminal offenses reported to have occurred on non-campus property owned or controlled by the Colleges.”

The Department of Education has a very broad definition of what constitutes non-campus property owned or controlled by institutions of higher education. For example, securing hotel rooms on a credit card for an academic trip, sports team competition or student organization trip constitutes control and as a result designates the hotel rooms used by students, faculty or staff for lodging, as well as the common areas of the hotel, non-campus property. Similarly, securing other space such as classrooms, meeting rooms, conference rooms, practice-fields/venues at lodging or other locations pursuant to any agreement also constitutes control. However, merely attending a conference, class or participating in a sporting event hosted by an organization or other higher education institution does not constitute control.

The Office of Campus Safety is now required by the Clery Act to request crime statistics for those locations under our control and for the time the locations were used by our students. This means Campus Safety must identify qualifying student travel, determine which police department serves the hotel or lodging location, and then send a letter requesting crime statistics information each year to that police department. As I am sure you can imagine, this will be a labor intensive endeavor.

The following constitutes qualifying student travel:

• Study abroad housing.
• Study abroad classroom locations under our control
• Academic, sports and student organization overnight trips where students are housed for more than one night.
• Academic, sports and student organization overnight trips regardless of the number of nights lodged, that occur each year and where the same hotel is utilized.

Campus Safety is required to request crime statistics for all qualifying travel during calendar year 2017. As a result we need to gather information for qualifying travel that has already occurred to date in 2017, qualifying travel scheduled for the remainder of the spring 2017 semester and qualifying travel scheduled for the fall 2017 semester.

Therefore, we are asking all faculty, staff and advisors to student groups who engaged in travel since January 1, 2017 to report that travel using the new electronic Report of Student Overnight Travel Form. We are also asking that, effective immediately, the electronic travel form be completed and submitted   prior to any college sponsored travel. We will then evaluate the travel to determine if it is a qualifying travel event. In all travel events, it will be necessary for the faculty or staff member to provide hotel room numbers after they have been identified. This information is necessary as crime statistics must be requested for the exact rooms used by our students, faculty and staff, as well as any common areas within the hotel or lodging location such as hallways, lobbies and stairwells. If hotel rooms are known prior to traveling, please include them on the electronic form. If room information is not known prior to traveling, the exact room numbers must be submitted within ten (10) days of the travel via email to campussafety@hws.edu and corbett@hws.edu. Hotel bills showing the room numbers are acceptable.

Contact Associate Vice President Marty Corbett at 315-781-3000 with any questions regarding this federal requirement.