To the Editor:
Thank you for drawing your readers' attention to the recently-released annual security report: Safety at Dartmouth in the article entitled "Crime spikes in Dartmouth dorms" in Monday's paper. The data from the two reports reviewed in the article are not comparable because they cover different periods of time. The article draws on information contained in Dartmouth's Annual Security Report mandated by the Clery Act under federal law. It also contains information from the 2002-03 Annual Report to the Community of the Dartmouth Undergraduate Disciplinary System which is posted on our department's website and makes comparisons between the data contained in the two reports. The Annual Security Report data is for the calendar year 2003, Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2003, as mandated by federal law. Each October we release information to the Dartmouth community about the College's disciplinary system (including the Committee on Standards and the Organization Adjudication Committee) for the previous academic year. The 2002-03 Annual Report to the Community of the Dartmouth Undergraduate Disciplinary System which was reviewed is for the academic year that ran from the 2002 summer term through the 2003 spring term.
The Annual Report to the Community of the Dartmouth Undergraduate Disciplinary System for this past academic year, 2003-04, will be available soon on our website. Once the new report is posted, we welcome your questions.