O.C. Colleges Getting Wise to Campus Crime

Soon after an Orange Coast College student reported she had been sexually attacked in a campus parking lot, a well-oiled machine went to work. Flyers describing the Jan. 30 incident were posted in all women’s bathrooms, major buildings and walkways, and placed on each parked car for three successive days.

After a freshman was reportedly raped within 600 yards of her Cal State Fullerton dormitory on Jan. 31, campus police held a security meeting for dorm residents to urge them to take precautions.

At Rancho Santiago Community College in Santa Ana, which had its first reported rape in history last August, the security chief has asked for three new officers plus $570,000 for emergency telephones, extra lighting and even bulletproof vests to combat an alarming increase in burglaries, break-ins and vandalism.

Across Orange County, many colleges are spending more on security, even at a time of budget cuts and soaring enrollment. It is partly a response to state and federal legislation requiring better lighting and public disclosure of campus crime statistics. Mostly, though, it is a recognition that college campuses are not--and perhaps never were--islands of peace and security, say local college officials.

“What we’re seeing is not uncommon, it mirrors society around us,” said J.R. Johnson, director of safety for the Rancho Santiago Community College District.

The bulk of the crimes on college campuses continues to be thefts, burglaries and vandalism. Nonetheless, violent assaults can and do happen.

In 1986, Saddleback College student Robbin Brandley was found murdered in her car in the school’s dimly lit parking lot. Brandley, a popular disc jockey on the campus radio station, was leaving the Mission Viejo campus after working as an usher at a school concert.

The murder remains unsolved, but it launched her parents, John and Genelle Reilley of Laguna Beach, on a crusade to improve lighting and security on the state’s college campuses.

Last spring, Orange Coast College was hit with heavy criticism from students for failing to give timely reports about sexual assaults on its campus. Since then, college officials have set up a crisis response team to get the word out to students and the public. They have more than doubled their security staff and increased patrols at a cost of more than $156,000 since last March.

“Our primary mission is the safety and security of our students,” Sharon Donoff, vice president for student services at the Costa Mesa college, said of the increased security measures. But even those improvements cannot prevent all crime.

“We need to educate our students to understand that this (campus) is a microcosm of the world, and they need to be aware of their surroundings, just as much as if they were walking out of Bullock’s at the South Coast Plaza parking lot.”

At UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, where police are authorized to carry weapons, security officials say crime on their campus tends to be cyclical.

For example, Cal State Fullerton had seen a steady increase in the number of car thefts since 1986. But car thefts dropped dramatically in the past two years after campus police say they captured five separate gangs of thieves, said William Huffman, the university’s assistant chief of security.

UC Irvine reported two rapes, 87 burglaries and 33 motor vehicle thefts in the 1990-91 academic year. In the past several months, special enforcement efforts and a campaign to lock equipment and doors have reduced the rash of computer thefts that have plagued the university in recent years, according to Dennis L. Powers, UCI’s assistant chief of police.

Powers said officers captured three Marines who were allegedly in the act of burglarizing the Graduate School of Management building late last year. But so far, there have been no arrests in a series of 12 burglaries of faculty homes on campus in the last seven months. Powers said they are conducting special enforcement efforts to halt the break-ins.

As a rule, most campus crimes are committed by non-students, Powers said. However, two UCI students were arrested last month on charges of possession of firearms in student housing. Firearms are illegal on the university campus.

In general, though, officials at both UCI and Cal State Fullerton tout their campuses as safer places than many surrounding communities.

“If you talk to local jurisdictions and look at the percentage per capita (of crime), our campus is far lower,” said William Huffman, Cal State Fullerton’s assistant chief of security. “You are far less apt to be sexually assaulted here than just about any place else in the county.”

Still, Huffman said his officers had geared up to present a sexual-assault awareness seminar this month.. Officers gave a shortened version of the seminar to the 400 residents in campus housing after the Jan. 31 rape of a freshman on campus. The students were asked to never to walk alone on campus at night.

In that reported attack, an 18-year-old freshman had walked alone from her campus dormitory to buy cigarettes at a gas station convenience store just north of the Fullerton campus. On her way back about 8:30 p.m., she was grabbed at knifepoint and dragged into the bushes lining a deserted access road paralleling the Orange Freeway. Campus police arrested 39-year-old Fullerton laborer Terry Lonnie Briggs on suspicion of rape late Friday.

Cal State Fullerton has had to cut its security budget because of a $16-million shortfall in the state budget last year. Huffman said he cannot fill one vacant officer’s position, and one of the campus’ three shuttle buses is not working. It probably cannot be repaired and there is no money to replace it, he said.

At Chapman University in Orange, campus officials have increased lighting and taken other security measures to improve the safety on campus, more as a proactive step than in response to crime, said Ronald W. Hall, director of campus safety. More than two years ago, students were instrumental in helping campus officers start a “safe-ride” shuttle service to ferry students to dorms and parked cars late at night.

Yet, a rape in the stadium parking area last October stirred concern among many students.

“We always thought we were pretty safe around here--no graffiti, no gang violence,” said Kati Spencer, editor of The Panther, the campus newspaper. “But since the . . . rape, I don’t walk by myself alone at night anymore. . . . Students have become a little more reclusive and are keeping to themselves.”

The victim in the Oct. 6 attack ultimately declined to press charges, either criminally or administratively, campus officials said.

Community colleges have security forces too. But they generally operate with revenue gathered through parking fees and citations, not state funds, which have not kept up with enrollment growth in recent years, said Ann Reed, spokeswoman for the chancellor of the 107-campus state community college system.

“I think there is a heightened awareness that safety is an issue for our students, and that we need to do whatever we can to provide a safe environment for them while they are on our campuses,” she said. But without more state funds, it is difficult to do more.

A 1990 bill by state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) and pushed by the Reilleys requires the state to set standards for adequate lighting. Under pressure from the University of California, Cal State and community college system lobbyists who said the cost would be exorbitant, the law as passed applies only to future campuses.

Some colleges have improved lighting and security anyway.

Saddleback College President Constance M. Carroll said she has worked on security issues at the Mission Viejo campus since her arrival in 1983, long before the death of Robbin Brandley and efforts by her parents to get more lights on the campus.

“Certainly that incident did contribute to some areas of improvement,” said Carroll, whose campus is now patrolled by a force of 14 full-time and part-time police officers who carry guns. The campus also has a staff of eight security escorts for evening students.

Gates and fencing now surround the campus of 24,000 students, making it possible to seal off the campus to outsiders when classes are not in session. Carroll credits that and year-round patrols for the reduction in thefts and vandalism.

The campus has also installed considerable additional lighting in parking areas, cut back hedges and added emergency telephones. Genelle Reilley, who would like to see even greater security measures, concedes that Saddleback is now one of the best lighted community college campuses in the state. But she says more must be done.

“They need to hire more police,” Reilley said of Saddleback and other colleges. “At many community colleges with enrollments of tens of thousands of students, they never have more than two officers on duty at any one time. This is horrible.”

Many students are worried about their personal safety.

Since the sexual attacks at Orange Coast last spring, Anita Driessen tries to walk to her car with a group or at least one friend after evening classes. Last semester, she availed herself of the services of two security guards who were waiting when her night class let out.

In the most recent incident, a 19-year-old student was walking alone about 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 30 in the fine arts parking area off Fairview Road when a young man of about 20 approached from behind on his mountain bicycle. The rider grabbed her breasts, then rode off without speaking, campus officials said.

The woman did not report it at first, but did so the next day, at the urging of her boyfriend.

Apart from investigating the crime, campus officials debated how to treat the case, which on first blush may seem relatively minor. But Orange Coast Vice President Donoff pointed out that it was clearly a case of sexual battery, a crime punishable by up to six months in jail. Moreover, she said the unidentified woman was traumatized by the attack.

So posters describing the latest attack went up Monday. Reading them brought back the anxiety of last year for Driessen.

“I keep my keys out now, and my eyes are always peeled,” said the 22-year-old theater arts major from Costa Mesa. “You know, it also makes me made mad. Nobody should have to worry about this, but people need to take precautions. . . . I’ve learned that I can’t ever say it’s not going to happen to me.”

Profile of Orange County Campus Crimes

Most crimes on Orange County college campuses are burglaries, thefts and vandalism. But more severe offenses--such as robbery, assault and rape--do occur. Here’s a look at the local scene.

Campus Security at a Glance

Cal State Fullerton: Provides 24-hour security service with a force of 16 sworn officers, plus escort and tram service to get students safely to and from parking lots.

Chapman College: Security patrols on campus 24 hours daily. Escort service and a personal-property engraving service are available.

Cypress College: Escort service available.

Fullerton College: “We are a city within a city with all the potential problems that face life in the city. In short, we teach the students to take precautions,” said John Maw, of campus security.

Orange Coast College: Increased lighting in parking lots, beefed-up security staff and emergency telephones throughout campus.

UC Irvine: Escort services available; emergency phones located campuswide.

Types of Crimes

Motor- College, Aggravated Vehicle university assault Rape Robbery Burglary Theft CS Fullerton 2 0 0 23 31 Chapman 10 1 0 35 5 Coastline 0 0 0 2 1 Cypress 2 0 1 3 29 Fullerton 5 0 0 67 4 Golden West 1 0 0 1 15 Orange Coast 11 0 0 35 12 Rancho Sant. 11 0 3 29 22 Saddleback (1) 0 0 0 3 5 UCI (2) 6 2 0 87 33

Note: All numbers are for fiscal year 1990-91 except Chapman (calendar year 1991) and Cypress (calendar years 1989-91)

(1) Includes data for Saddleback College and Irvine Valley College

(2) Includes data for UCI Medical Center

Total Crimes at 2 Campuses

1986 1987 1988 1989 1990* Cal State Fullerton 57 30 85 91 67 UC Irvine 99 95 100 156 130

* most recent statistics available

Source: California Department of Justice, bureau of criminal statistics; individual campus police or security services

Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times