Content warning: This article contains discussions of sexual assault and violence.
Northwestern saw spikes in hate crimes and sexual assault reports as well as zero fire reports on its Evanston campus, according to its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report released in a Sept. 25 email.
NU has been required to release annual reports disclosing crime statistics on all six of its locations since 1992 under the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which requires universities that receive federal funding to publish the data. The University has also disclosed fire safety statistics in similar accordance with the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act.
Data collected from more than a decade of the yearly reports reveal a sharp increase in hate crimes, with nine reported cases on the Evanston campus compared to one the previous year. The report cited two thefts, two assaults and one vandalism tied to prejudice against national origin.
Prior to 2024, no campuses reported any hate crimes characterized by national origin. Communication freshman Yushu Wu, an international student from China, said the sharp rise made him more alert.
“How should I position myself as an international student?” he said. “Should I present myself more directly as a foreigner?”
Wu added that political tensions between the United States and China influenced his choice to stay vigilant.
Another uptick occurred in fondling, the non-consensual touching of a person’s private body parts, on the Evanston campus. Reported cases jumped from two in 2023 to 12 in 2024.
Other forms of sexual assault, including rape, did not see an increase in reported cases.
Weinberg senior Sahil Desai, director of Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators, said they were cautious to interpret this rise as a simple increase in sexual assaults.
“The vast majority of interpersonal violence, so that includes sexual assault and harassment, goes unreported,” Desai said. “Maybe people were more familiar with the reporting process, more open to reporting and they were more educated about it.”
The Department of Justice estimated that 76% of sexual assaults in the U.S. in 2024 went unreported, and on college campuses, earlier DOJ studies indicated that the percentage is likely much higher.
Desai noted that the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance, which responds to on-campus sexual misconduct, has recently expanded efforts to both educate on sexual assault and provide secondary report-resolution pathways.
One of those pathways, what the office calls “alternative resolution,” was implemented in September 2023.
“You don’t necessarily have to go through a traditional justice process, and you can come to an agreement with the respondent on how to move forward,” Desai said.
NU campuses outside the Chicago area reported no crimes throughout 2024, continuing no-crime streaks of four years in Miami and of two years in San Francisco, Qatar and Washington, D.C.
For the first time since the University began publishing fire safety data in 2008, the Evanston campus reported zero fires in residential buildings in 2024, following four back-to-back years with one fire.
William Muno, Evanston Fire Department’s deputy chief of operations, told The Daily in February that the department responded to more than 200 false fire alarms during 2024. Even though fire alarms may scare some students, Bienen freshman Erin Lee said she isn’t concerned.
Lee evacuated Willard Residential College just before 1 a.m. on Oct. 2 following one false alarm, which radio dispatches said was caused by a “faulty hood.”
“I do feel safe on campus because of how Willard RAs and all the upperclassmen helped us through it,” Lee said.
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