Universities.com has ranked Judson University in Elgin as No. 3 among its 2017 picks for the “10 Safest College Campuses in America.”

Universities.com is an online resource for parents and students to compare degree programs and more for as many as 7,000 colleges and universities throughout the United States.

“You’ll be hard-pressed to find a college with as much dedication to keeping students safe as Judson University in Elgin, Illinois,” Universities.com says in its synopsis. “The school offers an incredible array of programs aimed at many different areas of safety, including theft prevention, behavior assessment, self-defense, assault prevention and more.”

Judson was selected for this list because it helps to model “what students (and their parents) should look for” when determining whether or not a college campus is safe to visit or attend, the recent Universities.com article reported.

“We are proud of our community’s commitment to safety and will continue to develop our program to ensure safety and security are a strategic focus,” Campus Safety Director Nick Salzmann said.

Other factors that made Judson a standout school to honor: free self-defense training; the fact that concerns can be reported anonymously; students are encouraged to register their bikes on campus and are reminded often to lock their doors; and the report concluded that there is “a culture of crime prevention and safety for the entire Judson campus community.”

Judson University shares this honor with the following schools: University of Connecticut-Avery Point; Penn State Lehigh Valley; Menlo College; Corban University; Brigham Young University-Idaho; Bellevue University; St. Joseph’s College-New York; Fashion Institute of Technology; and New York Institute of Technology-Old Westbury.

What Makes a College Campus Safe?

Two key components make up a safe college campus — 1) low crime and 2) proactive school safety programs. By investigating these two aspects of your potential college destination, you can gauge just how safe your new environment will be. Click here to find out more on how Universities.com compiled its safest schools ratings.

SOURCE: Judson University news release, Universities.com website

About Judson Unversity

Judson University is a fully accredited, private Christian institution nestled along the beautiful Fox River in Elgin, just 40 miles northwest of Chicago. Judson is home to more than 1,200 students from 33 states and 20 countries and offers degrees in more than 65 different majors and minors for traditional, graduate and adult students. The university ranks consistently among the Best Regional Universities in the Midwest by U.S. News & World Report and has been recognized as a “Christian College of Distinction.”