Earlier this week, Findthebest.com cited a local Alabama university as a “Most Dangerous Campus”? in the country and later retracted its statement due to errors in its reporting. This website has, however, added Oakwood University to its list and the local media has been reporting on this erroneous information.
This organization publishes sensationalized ratings for higher education institutions based upon unscientific analysis and inaccurate information. It bases its “Most Dangerous Campus”? ratings on an aggregate number of campus incidents without accounting for the seriousness of the incidents. This source also fails to account for the public events that may be hosted on campuses that could increase the campus population at any given time.
This organization claims to have gathered its information from Annual Security Reports that institutions of higher education must provide to the Department of Education. According to Oakwood University Police Department, there have been no reports of murders, negligent homicides, or rapes on the campus of Oakwood University. Furthermore, there has been no consistent history of serious crimes on this campus to which this organization alludes.
“Oakwood University continues to be a safe and welcoming campus for its students, faculty, staff, visitors, and for the Huntsville community who frequent the campus and find it to be a safe haven for activities such as early morning and late evening walks, dining in our food service facilities, scholarly research in our library, and recreational pursuits on our playing fields, and other sports facilities,” said Leslie N. Pollard, Ph.D., D.Min., M.B.A., president of Oakwood University.