An Examination of the Perceptions of Campus Safety Among Full-Time Faculty at Virginia Community Colleges

The view that colleges are generally safe has been challenged by threats of violence on campuses across the country, causing fear among stakeholders. Community college faculty are not immune to crime-related fear on campus; however, the research has largely ignored this population. This research serves to fill that gap. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to examine perceptions of campus safety among full-time faculty at Virginia community colleges. An electronic Likert-type scale survey was disseminated to a sample of 472 full-time faculty throughout seven Virginia community colleges of varying sizes. Of those, 135 (28.7%) voluntarily participated in the study. Participants self-reported experiences, perceptions, attitudes, and demographic information. Respondents reported they are most concerned about being victimized on campus by being threatened with a firearm (30.9%), having something stolen (28.1%), and being verbally threatened (25.9%). Regarding perceptions of campus safety, no statistically significant differences were found within the sample subpopulations for age or race; however, statistically significant differences were found within the sample subpopulations for gender and years of experience. A statistically significant difference was found between male and female respondents specifically for how safe they feel in their office, with female faculty feeling significantly less safe. Similarly, respondents who did not identify as either male or female reported feeling less safe in campus bathrooms, than their male or female colleagues. Every faculty demographic surveyed selected campus parking lots (which in some cases was tied with other locations) as the place on campus that elicits the highest level of fear of victimization, except for faculty respondents who did not identify as either male or female regarding their gender, for them, the campus bathroom elicits the highest level of fear of victimization. With a limited budget, it is critical to know how to best allocate funds to improve perceptions of campus safety and address crime-related fear on community college campuses. This study provides guidance for administrators by suggesting actionable steps that can be taken to improve perceptions of campus safety among full-time faculty.