As newly admitted students flock to campus for that final look around in the college application process, they are greeted with a pristine image of all that Whitman has to offer. Parents and teens stroll down Main Street past wine bars, candy stores and trendy cafes.Walla Walla stands out as a cute, small town founded upon strong family values. As one advertisement at the airport proclaims, there are “no skyscrapers, air pollution or traffic jams. Just good people.”

This presentation, however, is contrasted by a number of reported instances of petty theft committed against Whitman students. According to Whitman’s Annual Security Reports, from 2006 to 2008, there have been six reported cases of burglary, one of motor vehicle theft and seven of aggravated assault.

Confronted with this tension between idyllic, college catalog Walla Walla and the hazy, criminal Walla Walla, which one strikes closer to the truth?

Students on campus generally recognize that criminal activity does occur, but don’t acknowledge it as occupying a constant or large presence. Sophomore Jeff Gayle sees crime as an understated but understood event.

“There [is] stuff that gets stolen,” he said. “But it’s not super prevalent.”

Sophomore Drake Skaggs affirms that as soon as students begin living on campus, they hear accounts of crime on campus.

“They start to hear stories about townies stealing [things],” he said.

Sophomore Wing Lam doesn’t see crime on campus between Walla Walla residents and Whitman students as commonplace, but she still attests to its presence.

“I live in an area where people get robbed all the time,” she said.

While in a small community of less than 1,500 students, any amount of theft or assault may seem large; when compared to a survey of other small colleges across the Pacific Northwest, Whitman stands out as relatively low in crime. In the same time frame, the 2,700-student Whitworth College reported 45 burglaries and eight motor vehicle thefts, the 3,581-student Pacific Lutheran University reported 42 burglaries and 33 motor vehicle thefts, and the 3,529-student Lewis and Clark College reported 63 burglaries and two motor vehicle thefts. Even neighboring Walla Walla University, with an enrollment of 1,800 students, reported 24 burglaries and three car thefts.

Considering the rate of crime occurring at other small colleges, Walla Walla may deserve its safe reputation. Whitman’s Director of Security Terry Thompson explained that while a majority of burglaries against Whitman students involve people from outside the Whitman community, for the most part, surges in crime correspond to trends within Walla Walla itself.

“Crimes are limited to theft of computers and bicycles,” Thompson said in an e-mail. “In all other categories Whitman students are not victimized more than the general population.”

Thompson emphasized that the crimes that do occur are not part of a purposeful plan to scare students, but events that occur on the spur of the moment.

“Are there people who commit crimes of opportunity who frequent the Whitman campus? Yes. The Security Department works hard to identify those people and to take steps to assure they do not come to the campus,” said Thompson.

The one area that sets Whitman College apart from its neighboring institutions is its rate of aggravated assault. While PLU, Lewis and Clark and Walla Walla University each report only one instance of aggravated assault, Whitman has had seven.

When taken into consideration with total cases within Walla Walla itself, however, this number seems nearly insignificant. According to the Crime in Washington Annual Report, from 2006 to 2008 there have been 240 cases of aggravated assault in the town. Those instances occurring within Whitman, which makes up approximately five percent of Walla Walla’s population, account for less than three percent of total counts of aggravated assault.

Whitman doesn’t exactly deserve the polished image it has garnered over the years in admissions literature and Spring Visitors’ Days, but the rose-colored lens through which many view the college isn’t entirely faulty. Despite definite instances of burglary and assault, when compared to hard statistics, Whitman establishes itself as a safe college in the Pacific Northwest and a safe place within Walla Walla.