Committed to Safety

It is the policy of College of the Mainland to provide an educational, employment, and business environment free of discrimination based on age, race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, genetic information or veteran status. Board of Trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, and other agents of the College will not engage in conduct constituting unlawful harassment, discrimination, sexual violence, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking.

Students who have experienced sexual assault, sexual violence, stalking, domestic violence, or other crimes may seek advice, assistance, and resources from the Vice President for Student Services, or the College’s Title IX Coordinator. The Title IX Coordinator’s duties include facilitating the complaint and investigation process. Individuals within these offices can assist the complainant with accessing medical or counseling services, advocacy services, social support services, legal services, and police services. Even in the absence of a formal complaint, the College may be able to provide assistance to the complainant with respect to his or her academic, living, transportation, or working situations. For example, a student might wish to explore changing a class or class time.

Safety on Campus

Safety on campus is a joint responsibility of students, employees, and Security. Campus Police are available to help you 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and their goal is to welcome all questions, suggestions and reports of any activities that do not appear to be safe or conducive to a positive learning experience. If you ever feel uneasy about walking to your vehicle or to another building, perhaps because it's late and you're alone, don't hesitate to security. They will gladly escort you.

To report emergencies or to request an escort, dial 599 from any campus phone. From your cell phone, dial 409-933-8599.

Emergencies/Crimes in Progress

Students who have just experienced an assault or other sexual violence should call 911 and locate to a safe place. The student should not change clothes. If the incident occurred on campus, the student should contact campus police at extension 599 (if you are on campus), 409-933-8599 (from your cell phone). Campus security assistance is available 24 hours a day. Campus personnel may assist the victim in obtaining transportation to a hospital or clinic, crisis center, or other location. Prompt medical attention in a case of recent assault is necessary to document and treat any injuries, preserve evidence, and screen for certain medical conditions and diseases.

Clery Reportable Crimes

Under the Clery Act, College of the Mainland is required to track the occurrence of certain crimes occurring on or near campus:

On Campus: any building or property owned or controlled by an institution within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including residence halls. This also includes any building or property that is within or reasonably contiguous to the geographic area that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is frequently used by students, and supports institutional purposes (such as a food or other retail vendor).

Non-Campus: any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution. This also includes any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution.

Public Property: all public property, including thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities, that is within the campus, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus.

The definitions below are brief statements of longer legal definitions. For a complete list of Clery definitions please go to: National Center for Education Statistics

Jeanne Clery Act – Crime Statistics Reporting

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) is a federal mandate requiring all colleges and universities that participate in the federal student financial aid program to disclose information about crime on their campuses and in the surrounding communities.

The Clery Act requires College of the Mainland and other institutions of higher education to do the following:

  • Collect, classify and publish crime reports and statistics related to crime.
  • Issue timely warnings and campus alerts for Clery-reportable crimes that represent an ongoing threat to the safety of students or employees, or emergency notifications upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees.
  • Publish an annual security report containing safety and security-related policy statements and crime statistics and distribute it to all current students and employees.
  • Submit crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education each fall via a web-based data collection.
  • Maintain a daily crime log of alleged criminal incidents that is open to public inspection.
  • Disclose missing student notification procedures that pertain to students residing in on-campus student housing facilities.

College of the Mainland's Annual Security Report

Criminal Offenses

Murder:
The willful (non-negligent) killing of a human being by another. Note: Deaths caused by negligence, attempts to kill, assaults to kill, suicides, accidental deaths and justifiable homicides are excluded.
Manslaughter:
The killing of another person through gross negligence. Gross negligence is the intentional failure to perform a manifest duty in reckless disregard of the consequences as affecting the life or property of another.
Sex Offenses:
Any sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent.
Rape:
The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
Fondling:
The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
Incest:
Non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
Statutory Rape:
Non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
Robbery:
The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
Aggravated Assault:
An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. It is not necessary that injury result from an aggravated assault when a gun, knife or other weapon is used which could or probably would result in a serious potential injury if the crime were successfully completed.
Burglary:
The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft. For reporting purposes this definition includes: unlawful entry with intent to commit a larceny or a felony; breaking and entering with intent to commit a larceny; housebreaking; safecracking; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
Motor Vehicle Theft:
The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle, including joyriding.
Arson:
Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling, house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.
Dating Violence:
Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on the reporting party's statement and with consideration of the length of the relationship, the type of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship. Dating violence includes, but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse.
Domestic Violence:
The term “domestic violence” refers to a pattern of abusive behavior between two individuals formerly or currently in an intimate relationship, including through marriage, cohabitation, dating, or within a familial or household arrangement. Abuse may be in the form of physical assault, sexual assault, bodily injury, emotional distress, physical endangerment, or when the imminent threat of any of these instances puts the victim in fear of their occurrence. The term encompasses acts committed by by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner, and by a person similarly situated to a spouse or the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred.
Stalking:
A course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others or suffer substantial emotional distress. “Course of conduct” means two more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly or indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device or means.

Referrals for Discipline

For Weapons, Drug, and Liquor Law Violations, Clery reportable crimes are those incidents only where arrests or disciplinary referrals occur.

Weapon Law Violations:
The violation of laws or ordinances dealing with weapon offenses, regulatory in nature, such as: manufacture, sale, or possession of deadly weapons; carrying deadly weapons, concealed or openly; furnishing deadly weapons to minors; aliens possessing deadly weapons; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
Drug Abuse Violations:
Violations of state and local laws relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs. The relevant substances include opium or cocaine and their derivatives (morphine, heroin, codeine); marijuana; synthetic narcotics (Demerol, methadone); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (barbiturates, Benzedrine).
Liquor Law Violations:
The violation of laws or ordinance prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to minor or intemperate person; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on a train or public conveyance; all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned. Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included in this definition. Alcohol violations referred for campus disciplinary action under the Campus Code need not be reported to the Police Department.

Hate Crimes

A crime involving one or more of the above listed crimes, the crimes of theft, simple assault, intimidation and/or vandalism reported to local police agencies or to a campus security authority that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator's bias against the victim. The categories of bias include the victim's actual or perceived race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, and disability.

Larceny-Theft (Except Motor Vehicle Theft):
The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Attempted larcenies are included. Embezzlement, confidence games, forgery, worthless checks, etc., are excluded.
Simple Assault:
An unlawful physical attack by one person upon another where neither the offender displays a weapon, nor the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.
Intimidation:
To unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words and/or other conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to actual physical attack.
Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property:
To willfully or maliciously destroy, damage, deface, or otherwise injure real of personal property without the consent of the owner or the person having custody or control of it.