SHSU Homepage

SHSU Ranks Among 'Safest' Universities In America

Oct. 1, 2009

Sam Houston State University has been named among America's "safest colleges" by The Daily Beast, a New York-based news Web site.

On the list of 25, Sam Houston State University was ranked No. 10, followed by two other Texas universities: Texas A&M (No. 24) and Texas Woman's University (No. 25).

The Web site based its list on analysis of crimes statistics that occurred on and near campuses that are reported annually to the U.S. Department of Education as required by the federal Clery Act.

These crime statistics included murder, assault, sexual offenses and robberies for the two most recent years of raw data.

The score determined for a university, based on a number of weighted criteria, was also divided by the student body "so that students at smaller schools and giant universities could be compared apples-to-apples," according to the methodology section of the article.

"To be fair, even the numbers reported to the Department of Education are frequently criticized as imperfect and, indeed, schools are regularly fined for noncompliance," the article said. "Additionally, in determining our methodology, we made numerous fair-minded but necessarily subjective decisions."

Not included were universities with enrollments of fewer than 6,000, graduate only and two-year schools and commuter colleges.

Of the 25 safest, only five are larger than SHSU in terms of student population. SHSU's population is listed as 16,496.

The Daily Beast also compiled a list of the 25 schools in the nation with the biggest crime problems.

Both completed lists can be found at http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-24/the-top-25-safest-colleges/.

SHSU's crime statistics can be found at http://www.shsu.edu/~upd_www/upd/stats.html.

- END -

Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu

This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office
Director: Bruce Erickson
Assistant Director: Julia May
Writer: Jennifer Gauntt
Located in the 115 Administration Building
Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834

Please send comments, corrections, news tips to Today@Sam.edu.

SHSU 'In the News'

Brian Domitrovic, assistant professor of history, was part of a panel that discussed the decline of the dollar and how to fix it on the Oct. 22 episode of CNBC's The Kudlow Report. Following the segment, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who also appeared on the show, plugged Domitrovic's book Econoclasts. In addition, he was one of the experts who discussed the gross domestic product in a recent Public Radio International story.

Voices From Death Row, compiled and edited by Paul Ruffin's 2008 Editing/Publishing class is the subject of an article and video by Voice of America, a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government.