Reported stalkings on or near the UC Santa Barbara campus more than doubled from 2017 to 2018 with 65 reported stalkings this year, up 39 from last year, according to UCSB’s 2019 Annual Security Report

The report includes crimes committed on the UCSB campus, specific public properties adjacent to the campus and other campus-affiliated properties.

The report attributed this increase to “ongoing campus education about recognizing and reporting interpersonal violence.”

This increase was not consistent with other offenses which universities are mandated to report; the same number of reports of dating violence were filed in 2017 as 2018. Reports of domestic violence, rape and fondling each decreased slightly from last year. 

Drug law violations in on-campus housing also decreased by over two-thirds from 2017 to 2018. In 2018, 37 students were referred for disciplinary action for drug law violations in student housing, down 81 reports from the 118 students who were referred for the offense the previous year. 

Residential & Community Living believes that an increase in the popularity of vaping last year led to “a good portion of this decrease,” Jill Hurd, Residential & Community Living director, said in an email.

Weapons law violations arrests, however, increased from 2017 to 2018. 27 individuals were arrested for weapons law violations in 2018, approximately twice as many as the 13 arrests in 2017. 

On-campus housing burglaries reported in 2018 declined from 2017’s total. Ten burglaries were reported in on-campus housing in 2018, while 22 were reported in 2017.

One hate crime — a “vandalism incident” related to gender identity — was reported in 2018.

The report includes crimes reported to the UC Police Department and other campus security agencies, including the UCSB Clery Act Compliance Coordinator, the Office of Judicial Affairs, Office of Student Conduct, the Title IX & Sexual Harassment Compliance Office and Employee & Labor Relations.

The UCSB Police Department is required to publish these statistics to comply with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act), according to the report.

A version of this article appeared on page 5 of the Oct. 3, 2019 print edition of the Daily Nexus.

Print

Hayley Tice
Hayley Tice serves as data editor for the 2020-21 school year. She can be reached at hayleytice@dailynexus.com or data@dailynexus.com.