By Kim Manahan & Melissa Boyd (Whetstone Staff Writers )

Crime on campus has decreased from last year, said Walter Beaupre, director of safety and security.

“For the first two weeks of last fall’s semester, we had 44 incidents reported, compared to 30 for the same period for this year,” he said.

Despite the good news, some students still feel unsafe, including freshmen who are making the transition from high school.

“Wesley is more of an open space, where anybody can just come on campus,” said freshman Tyra Beckett. “After coming from high school, I don’t think Wesley is as safe.”

Transfer student Taylor Harvey wasn’t surprised about how much more dangerous it was at Wesley compared to high school.

“It differs on where on campus you are,” he said. “I don’t feel terribly unsafe or completely safe either.”

Students feel safer with security around.

Sophomore Shannon Perry said she has seen an increase in officers on campus.

“I have never had to go to security with a problem,” she said. “Hopefully I will never have to.”

The college makes a good effort in keeping things safe, Harvey said. “But off campus is a bit different.”

Some students feel safer on certain areas of campus.

“It’s better for me personally,” said sophomore Kyle Pequeno, “because I switched dorms.”

Pequeno’s dorm room was burglarized this year, and said security was quick to assist him.

“I had a lockbox hidden in my room, and came back one day after dinner and it was gone,” he said. “It had everything in it, credit card, insurance card, state ID, and $700.”

There has been one sexual assault on campus already this year.

In the 2009 Annual Security Report, no sex offenses are listed, although one was reported in the crime log in Sept. 2009.

“It was unfounded,” Beaupre said, “and no criminal charges were pressed.”

No aggravated assaults were reported in 2009.

“Although there have been two assaults documented in the crime log this year, they will not be reported in the annual reports, as they are not classified as aggravated assaults,” Beaupre said.

Aggravated assaults are defined as unlawful attacks by one person to another for the purpose of inflicting severe bodily injury, Beaupre said. They are usually accompanied by the use of a weapon.

But, according to Beaupre’s definition, the campus has seen at least one case of aggravated assault this year. On Sept. 12, senior Eric Adams witnessed students using baseball bats in a fight outside of Roe Hall.

Off campus, students say that if you leave local residents alone, then they’ll leave them alone.

“I haven’t had too much interaction with the locals but I have noticed some of them to be very confrontational,” Harvey said. “There have been fights on porches across from my dorm, but I can’t complain thus far.”

Perry said the Dover community is friendly and supportive.

“Dover is a safe place to live because since it is such a small city, the residents seem to get along with each other,” she said. “It is sometimes difficult to find such cohesiveness in such a small city, but in Dover that does not seem to be a problem.”