2 CA Universities Among America's Safest College Campuses: Report

CALIFORNIA — With universities reopening for on-campus learning as more people in the United States get vaccinated against COVID-19, students may be wondering how safe their college might be as they return to the classroom.

A report from Your Local Security, a security systems retailer, aims to shed some light on that issue and ranked the safest colleges in America. Using pre-pandemic crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigations and information from the U.S. Department of Education, the company found that California State University San Marcos and the University of California, Irvine, were the safest campuses in California.

Cal State San Marcos ranked 19th and UC Irvine ranked 21st among the top 25 safest college campuses in the country.

The violent crime rate is low at Cal State San Marcos with 2.06 incidents reported for every 10,000 people.

"In addition to a dedicated Women's Center on campus, Cal State offers workshops on everything from gender violence and sexual assault to relationship assault and warning signs of dangerous situations," the report said.

UC Irvine has the third-largest student body on the list, according to the report. The violent crime rate remains low, however, with 0.56 incidents reported for every 10,000 people.

The report looked at private, public and nonprofit colleges that offer two- or four-year degrees and have a minimum enrollment of 5,000 students.

Universities were then compared with one another based on the number of violent, property and hate crimes that have been reported per 10,000 people in and around campus using information from the FBI.

Here are the top 10 safest schools in America:

• Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho
• Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois
• Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan
• Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, Massachusetts
• Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey
• University of New Hampshire-Main Campus in Durham, New Hampshire
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia
• Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois
• West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas

The report considers the Idaho campus of Brigham Young University as the safest because it has the lowest violent crime rate among the colleges with .17 incidents reported for every 10,000 people. It also considers Rexburg to be the safest city in Idaho.

While Oakland University has some of the lowest crime rates on the list, the report points out that it also includes a direct link to Michigan's sex offender registry website, which it considers a "smart move for an organization that fosters on-campus living and social situations that involve strangers mingling."

Bridgewater State has invested $100,000 into its campus-wide security system and installed multiple call stations around the university for students to use in case of an emergency. The university has also developed an app that makes it easier to find a student when they call for help.

Virginia Tech made the list after the school completely overhauled its campus safety program following the mass shooting in 2007 that killed 32 people. The university added a new emergency messaging system that contacts students through text message, email and Twitter, according to the report.

A survivor from the shooting also created an app, LiveSafe, used at several other universities that allow a user to submit crime trips and report nearby crimes.