On-campus

is defined as “any building or property owned or controlled by an institution of higher education within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including student halls; and property within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is used by students, and supports institutional purposes (such as a food or other retail vendor).”

*On-campus Subset: On-campus Student Housing

is defined as “any student housing facility that is owned or controlled by the institution, or is located on property that is owned or controlled by the institution, and is within the reasonably contiguous geographic area that makes up campus.” 

Non-campus building or property

is defined as “any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization recognized by the institution; and any building or property (other than a branch campus) owned or controlled by an institution of higher education that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.”

  • Fraternity and Sorority owned Chapter houses fall into this category as do off campus Gallatin College locations and Ag research centers.

Public Property

is defined as “all public property that is within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution, such as a sidewalk, a street, other thoroughfare, or parking facility, and is adjacent to a facility owned or controlled by the institution if the facility is used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to the institution’s educational purposes."

Separate Campus 

is defined as "a separate location that the institution owns or controls, is not reasonable geographically contiguous with the main campus, has an organized program of study, and there is at least one person on site acting in an administrative capacity."

  • Montana State's Nursing programs in Missoula, Billings, Great Falls and Kalispell fall into this category.

Off Campus Trips

"If your institution sponsors students on an overnight trip every year and the students stay in the same hotel each year, you must include portions of the hotel in your noncampus geography. For example, students in the debate club take a trip to Washington, D.C. and stay at the same hotel every year. You must include in your statistics any crimes that occur in the rooms used by your students and any common areas used to access the rooms (lobby, elevators, etc.) for the times and dates specified in the rental agreement. Note that what matters here is repeated use of a location that is owned or controlled by the institution, not the number of days it is used or whether it is used by the same students or different students. 

Short-stay “away” trips

If your institution sponsors short-stay “away” trips of more than one night for its students, all locations used by students during the trip, controlled by the institution during the trip and used to support educational purposes should be treated as noncampus property. An example is a three-week marine biology study trip to Florida. Any classroom or housing space specified in the agreement between the institution and a third-party providing the space would be noncampus property. If your institution has entered into a written agreement with a third-party contractor to arrange housing and/or classroom space for a school-sponsored trip or study program (either domestic or foreign), it is assumed that the contractor is operating on behalf of the school as the school’s agent, putting the institution in control of this space. However, if your institution (or a contracted third party) does not have an agreement for the space used, your institution is not in control of the space and you are not required to count it. For example, there are some situations, such as sports tournaments, for which the host institution makes all of the housing arrangements for visiting students. In these situations, the visiting institutions do not have a written agreement for the use of space and are not required to disclose crime statistics for the housing in which their students are located. However, the host institution would be responsible for disclosing crime statistics for the housing since they hold the agreement for the housing. 

Study abroad programs

If your institution sends students to study abroad at a location or facility that you don’t own or control, you don’t have to include statistics for crimes that occur in those facilities. However, if your institution rents or leases space for your students in a hotel or student housing facility, you are in control of that space for the time period covered by your agreement. Host family situations do not normally qualify as noncampus locations unless your written agreement with the family gives your school some significant control over space in the family home."