Crime Information
A Message About Crime on Campus
Since 1990, when the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 (later renamed the Jeanne Clery Act) was enacted, a great deal of national attention has been focused on campus crime statistics. The Jeanne Clery Act is so named in memory of a student at Lehigh University who was brutally raped and murdered in her resident hall room. Ms. Clery's family founded Security on Campus, Inc. and lobbied Congress for legislation that required colleges and universities to disclose their crime statistics.
Western Carolina University, like many state universities with police departments, was already reporting its crime statistics through the Federal Bureau of Investigations' Uniform Crime Reporting Index. However, the Jeanne Clery Act placed additional reporting requirements on all colleges and universities that receive Federal aid. These requirements include:
- publishing an annual report of crime on campus to the community
- issuing timely warnings to the campus community about crimes that pose an ongoing threat to students and employees,
- maintaining a public crime log,
- submitting crime statistics to the United States Department of Education, and
- protecting the rights of campus sexual assault victims.
You may have heard that Western Carolina University is a safe campus. Certainly, our crime rates are lower than those at more metropolitan campuses and even many off-campus locations. We have an active police department that works closely with other campus departments and students to be vigilant for crime. However, a low crime rate means little to the person who is victimized. For the victim, one crime is too many, and one crime is also too many for us.
Students are invited to use the information contained in the links on this page for academic projects. Should you have additional questions regarding our crime statistics on campus, please contact Sergeant Jacob Deal at 828.227.3207
For information regarding crime statistics within the City of Sylva, please contact Chief Davis Woodard of the Sylva Police Department at 828.586.2916.
For information regarding crime statistics within the unincorporated area of Jackson County including Cullowhee, please contact Sheriff Chip Hall of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department at 828.586.4355.
