Clery Crime and Fire Safety Report
The Department of Public Safety welcomes you to this new academic year at Mount Holyoke College. Each student, faculty member, and staff member enriches this community in many ways, including the way Mount Holyoke looks out for itself. The Department of Public Safety hopes you will join in becoming part of a network of responsibility for everyone’s well-being through small, routine gestures.
Looking out for each other, of course, involves a careful balance between safety and privacy. In setting department policies, Public Safety has taken pains to respect the individual’s rights. The more comfortable an individual feels about coming forward with information, we believe, the safer the whole community will be.
It may seem like a paradox, but Public Safety believes that caution can make you free. Building a healthy avoidance of risk into your daily routine can preserve your freedom to come and go as you please. First, habitual safety frees your mind from constantly being on guard—we’d like you to be alert, but not paranoid. Second, if you routinely avoid the risk of injury to yourself, your belongings, and each other, you are freer to take the risk of living life to the fullest. Lock your mountain bike today so you can take it off-road tomorrow.
The Department of Public Safety is the police force for the College community. It consists of professionally trained law enforcement officers and community service officers who keep current in the field through continuing education. All members of the department are trained in problem solving and in being as helpful as possible in a range of activities. Public Safety listens to feedback from and collaborates with individuals and organizations in a lattice of support and protection sustaining the Mount Holyoke College community.
The Mount Holyoke College Department of Public Safety became the first college or university police department to become certified and accredited by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission, Inc. The department remains one of only a handful of campus, municipal and specialized departments to achieve this status. This is a testament to the high quality and professionalism of the department’s staff.
This information serves several purposes. It provides hints on developing safe habits that reduce the risk of crimes against you and your property; describes how to handle emergencies and offers ways members of the Mount Holyoke community can look out for each other. This booklet also explains the authority, mission, and policies of the Department of Public Safety, along with campus crime statistics to comply with both federal and state laws. We hope you will not only read it carefully but also keep it bookmarked for reference.
Statement of Non-Discrimination
Mount Holyoke College is committed to diversity among its students, faculty, and staff. The College admits qualified students with any disability and of any age, religion, sexual orientation, race, color, national origin, or Vietnam-era veteran status, to all the programs and activities generally available to students and does not discriminate on the basis of these factors in the administration of its educational policies and programs.
Bias Based Profiling Policy
It is the policy of this department that, except in "suspect specific incidents," Public Safety officers are prohibited from considering the race, gender, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or disability of members of the public in deciding to detain a person or stop a motor vehicle and in deciding upon the scope or substance of any law enforcement action.
Check the Department of Education campus safety website to look up and compare crime data from any college or university in the country.
This report has been prepared to comply with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act. Annually, all enrolled students and current employees will receive a notice of the availability of the College’s annual security report on the department’s web site in their campus mailboxes. This notice will include the exact web site address of the College’s Clery Law-compliant publication as well as information that additional copies can be requested from the Department of Public Safety during normal business hours. This report is also publicized to potential students and employees. The security report and additional statistics are available on the Web at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/publicsafety.
This report is prepared in cooperation with the local law enforcement agencies surrounding our main campus and non-campus property sites, the offices of the Dean of the College, Dean of Students, Residential Life, Student Programs, Health Services and Department of Athletics. Each entity provides updated information on their educational efforts and programs to comply with the Act.
Campus crime, arrest and referral statistics include those reported to the Department of Public Safety, designated campus officials (including but not limited to directors, deans, department heads, etc.) and to local law enforcement agencies.
If you have any questions about anything contained in this report, please contact the Department of Public Safety at x2304 (dial 413-538-2304 from off campus.)
For a printed copy, please contact the Public Safety Office at 413-538-2304.
