The New School accidentally omitted Nazi swastikas scrawled on dorm doors in 2016 from the annual campus crime statistics administrators emailed to the entire university in September, administrators said.
Someone drew the Nazi symbol on several Kerrey Hall dorm doors including an all-female suite where LGBTQ, women of color and Jewish women lived.
The annual security report emailed to students on Sept. 28 did not reflect this incident. Instead, under hate crimes, the school had recorded zero for years 2016 through 2017.
“The incident was mistakenly added to this year’s (2017-18) report instead of last year’s (2016-17) when it was inputted in our reporting system,” said Thomas Iliceto, the director of campus security.
“We updated the 2016-17 report shortly thereafter to reflect the accurate statistics.”
On Oct.13 the university’s communications department told the Free Press that the annual security report had been updated reflect the hate crime incident in Kerrey Hall, more than a week after a reporter had asked about the discrepancy.
Although the annual security report was updated, no additional emails were sent to students informing them of the correction in reported hate crimes on campus.
According to Iliceto, the university is guided by the Clery Act, which defines a hate crime as “any crime motivated by bias against the victim based on race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, and disability (whether actual or perceived).”
The incident that happened in Kerry Hall falls under that criteria.
For the annual report, Campus Safety uses statistics from the NYPD, Iliceto said.
When institutions of higher education seek guidance on campus safety regulation, they turn to Clery Center. “The Clery Act requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to disseminate a public annual security report (ASR) to employees and students every October 1st. This ASR must include statistics of campus crime for the preceding 3 calendar years, plus details about efforts taken to improve campus safety,” according to the center’s website.
Colleges that fail to distribute the annual report to current student and employees by Oct. 1 are subject to fines from the U.S. Department of Education. Thomas Iliceto, Director of Campus Safety, stated the school will not be fined.
The New School’s annual security report includes crime statistics from both its New York City campus and its Parsons Paris Campus. According to the report, for the years 2014 through 2016, there has been a total of zero crimes involving students enrolled at Parsons Paris.
There have also been two robberies, one motor vehicle theft, zero aggravated assaults, 190 liquor law violations, 43 drug-related violations and two violent incidents in 2016, records for The New School’s main campus show.
There were no forcible sex offenses or reports of stalking, according to university records.
Illustration by Ashlie Juarbe.