"The measure of a Life is its Service."
Oct. 1, 2009
SHSU Media Contacts: Jennifer Gauntt
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.
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Writer: Jennifer Gauntt
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Brian Domitrovic, assistant professor of history, appeared on Book TV (C-SPAN) May 1-2, speaking about his recent book "Econoclasts: The Rebels Sparked the Supply Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity" (www.econoclasts.net).
Houston Chronicle education writer Jeannie Kever recently turned to Regents Professor of English Paul Ruffin for his views on university presses moving toward "digital books" as opposed to traditional ink-on-paper."We're fulfilling the ancient role of the university press, and that is to produce books," said Paul Ruffin, the Texas poet laureate for 2009 and director of the Texas Review Press at Sam Houston State University. "I don't want to give up the book because it is an art."
Monday, May 3
Tuesday, May 4
"The measure of a Life is its Service."