2008 Woodie Awards
CMU has 15 on sex offenders list
By: Ashley Hullinger
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: News
Colleges and universities across Michigan deal with issues of criminal sexual conduct every year.
According to the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, 178 registered offenders live in Mount Pleasant, 15 of which attend Central Michigan University.
CMU ranks fourth amongst Michigan's 15 public universities in the amount of registered sex offenders on the registry. Wayne State University is first with 27.
Stephen Thompson, sexual aggression services coordinator at CMU, said according to the Campus Crime Act, any offenders must report to the county they reside in within 10 days and must report to any other county where the offender resides for more than three days. He said this part of the act has only been in place for the past couple years.
"I consult the whole country about sexual awareness and many universities do not know about it," Thompson said, "It's up to the university how they want to handle sex offenders."
The U.S. Department of Education has had the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, which aims to secure university campuses across the nation, in place since 1990.
In Missouri, legislators have proposed a bill aimed at protecting students from predators. If approved, the bill would require colleges and universities to check every possible student against the sex offender registry. Offenders would be denied university housing.
Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, said he was not familiar with any legislation in the Michigan legislature that would ban sex offenders from college residence halls.
Thompson said the biggest drawback about such a law is who should do the checking. It is federal law for offenders to report in the county which they reside, but the policy of how to obtain this information is up to the university.
As of now, Thompson is unaware of any call for a similar bill at CMU. He said there is no ignoring the issues of sexual crimes - it is how to deal with them that is in question.
With so many people and so many offenders, it is difficult to catch an offender who has not reported properly, Thompson said.
"There are a significant percentage of offenders in all states where their whereabouts are unknown," Thompson said.
Haslett sophomore Cory Sweet said he believes there should be a policy, but not as strict as the one in Missouri.
"Overall, as a second-year campus resident, I feel very safe at CMU," Sweet said.
Mason junior Lindsay Elias said the bill is a bad idea. She said there are a lot of people who have been convicted of non-sexual crimes, but must still register on the registry.
news@cm-life.com
According to the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, 178 registered offenders live in Mount Pleasant, 15 of which attend Central Michigan University.
CMU ranks fourth amongst Michigan's 15 public universities in the amount of registered sex offenders on the registry. Wayne State University is first with 27.
Stephen Thompson, sexual aggression services coordinator at CMU, said according to the Campus Crime Act, any offenders must report to the county they reside in within 10 days and must report to any other county where the offender resides for more than three days. He said this part of the act has only been in place for the past couple years.
"I consult the whole country about sexual awareness and many universities do not know about it," Thompson said, "It's up to the university how they want to handle sex offenders."
The U.S. Department of Education has had the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, which aims to secure university campuses across the nation, in place since 1990.
In Missouri, legislators have proposed a bill aimed at protecting students from predators. If approved, the bill would require colleges and universities to check every possible student against the sex offender registry. Offenders would be denied university housing.
Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, said he was not familiar with any legislation in the Michigan legislature that would ban sex offenders from college residence halls.
Thompson said the biggest drawback about such a law is who should do the checking. It is federal law for offenders to report in the county which they reside, but the policy of how to obtain this information is up to the university.
As of now, Thompson is unaware of any call for a similar bill at CMU. He said there is no ignoring the issues of sexual crimes - it is how to deal with them that is in question.
With so many people and so many offenders, it is difficult to catch an offender who has not reported properly, Thompson said.
"There are a significant percentage of offenders in all states where their whereabouts are unknown," Thompson said.
Haslett sophomore Cory Sweet said he believes there should be a policy, but not as strict as the one in Missouri.
"Overall, as a second-year campus resident, I feel very safe at CMU," Sweet said.
Mason junior Lindsay Elias said the bill is a bad idea. She said there are a lot of people who have been convicted of non-sexual crimes, but must still register on the registry.
news@cm-life.com
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