What's included in the data:

This graphic displays alcohol violations reported to the U.S. Department of Education by colleges and universities under the 1990 federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. All colleges that participate in federal student aid programs must report their crime data for each calendar year.

This graphic shows rates of the total number of alcohol violations per 100 students annually. The rates were calculated by The Roanoke Times using enrollment figures obtained from the U.S. Department of Education.

"Alcohol violations" for the purpose of this graphic include:

• Only violations of state and local alcohol laws such as underage possession and supplying alcohol to minors. Violations of campus policy are not included.
• Both arrests and referrals for on-campus disciplinary action. If a single violation lead to both an arrest and on-campus discipline, only the arrest is reported.
• Violations that occurred on campus, on public property within or near campus, and in “non-campus” buildings – property owned by the college or college organizations that is not part of the main campus.

Read more, and see all Clery Act data at the Department of Education's website.

Additional notes on the data:

Virginia University of Lynchburg: Only three years of data was available for this school. The private Baptist college was formerly a seminary and only recently became a four-year college. It began filing Clery Act data in 2005.

Changes in 2005: You may notice significant increases or decreases in a particular school’s figures starting in 2005. That may be attributable to the publication of a handbook for reporting the data helped college better interpret what offenses must to be reported.