Understanding Students' Perceptions on Campus Safety and Security
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Shania Matos
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
Forensic Psychology
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Christine Doyle
Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to determine who felt safer on campus, commuters or students who
live on campus. Based on the survey 85.7% of the participants were commuters and 14.3% lived
on campus. The gender of the participants who took part of the research were 20% men, 6.7%
non-binary, and 73.3% women. The data for this research had been conducted through a
Qualtrics survey which consisted of questions that pertained to the topic of safety and features
that could be implemented to help secure the school. A series of Independent Sample t-Tests
were performed the analyze the hypothesis that commuters would feel safer on campus than
campus residents. There was no significant difference between commuters (M=3.25, SD=.622)
and campus residents (M=4.00, SD=.00) when asked how safe they felt on campus, t(12)=1.65,
p=ns. There was no significant difference between commuters (M=3.33, SD=1.435) and campus
residents (M=2.00, SD=1.414) when asked if they ever worried about their safety at school,
t(12)=1.218,p=ns. The significance of this study was to understand how students felt about their
safety and what other safety features could be implemented to make them feel safe and secure.
Participants expressed the need for more safety training, drills, and they wanted to see more of a
police presence on campus. Some issues with this study were the lack of participants who
responded to the survey. An idea for the future would be to send the survey out to more students
who attend the college so there could be more responses.