The Clery Act of 1990 gives college and university students the right to know what crimes have been committed within their campus. It requires that the school’s security department publish an annual crime report that can be viewed by anyone. Skyline’s security department has just posted their 2005 report in compliance with this act.

According to the published crime report, the offences are reported by campus security, campus officials of the S.M.C.C.C.D. at Skyline College, and the San Bruno Police Department Records Unit.

The report, which can be found posted in the cafeteria, separates crimes, such as hate crimes, motor vehicle theft and aggravated assault from substance abuse violations, namely liquor, drug and weapons law violations. It also lists crime statistics from two previous years for evaluation purposes.

In comparison to recent years, most of the listed offences have stayed at zero, while others have gone down. Skyline College has suffered less motor vehicle theft and no robberies in 2005, but in contrast, the burglary of school and private property in campus has been steadily increasing. The number of burglaries have almost doubled since 2003. The following year it jumped to four and in 2005 it is now up to seven.

According to Jeffery Hodges, Skyline’s Chief of security, the stolen items range from a computer from the cosmetology department to a vending machine that was broken into. While no item can be put under one particular classification, most miscellaneous items were stolen from unattended cars.

Hodges stated there are various reasons for this, but the main problems he talked about were students leaving valuable items in plain sight.

“The security department’s tip on this is to put any valuable items out of sight,” said Hodges. “Out of sight and out of mind”