A Year in Crime

Harvard is no stranger to the media spotlight.

Visiting world leaders, renowned scholars and talented students frequently draw the nation’s attention to Cambridge.

But this spring, flashing cameras and probing reporters converged on the University because of a much darker story—a gruesome murder allegedly involving one such star student.

Alexander Pring-Wilson, a graduate student in Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, was arrested and jailed for allegedly stabbing to death 18-year-old Cambridge resident Michael D. Colono.

The crime—and the Harvard connection—has attracted major media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and Court TV.

“Harvard has panache about it. It’s a little larger than life. And whenever you have larger than life, you get larger than life stories. And it takes on an almost whimsically mythical [quality],” says Pring-Wilson’s attorney Jeffrey A. Denner, who frequently defends Boston-area college students.

High-profile crimes involving members of the Harvard community are hardly a new phenomenon, and the Pring-Wilson case is not the only case to draw unfavorable attention to the University this year.

Two rugby players were arrested for streaking in highbrow Greenwich, Conn., in early May, and a member of the Harvard crew team was allegedly attacked by two Northeastern rowers in February.

Two separate rashes of juvenile crime this year also drew the attention of the University community and Cambridge.

But despite what the media spotlight might indicate to outside observers, both Harvard and Cambridge police officials say campus crime rates have remained stable.

Additionally, the Yale Law School bombing drew attention to the vulnerability of universities to attack—and the worldwide outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) sent Harvard officials scrambling to keep the disease off campus.

But Harvard’s Incident Support Team (IST)—formed in the wake of Sept. 11—has yet to face the kind of major campus emergency for which they are constantly preparing.

So while the fallabilities of the University and its students have figured prominently in the headlines—the perception such media coverage has created belies the reality of a relatively quiet year in crime at Harvard.

Charged With Murder

The Pring-Wilson case is by far the most prominent of the crimes in which Harvard students have been implicated this year.

According to accounts presented in court, Pring-Wilson and Colono engaged in a verbal altercation outside of a Cambridge pizza parlor in the early morning hours of April 12, as Pring-Wilson walked by the car in which Colono was seated with two others.

Details surrounding the subsequent physical confrontation remain in dispute, but both the prosecution and the defense agree that Pring-Wilson stabbed Colono five times.

Pring-Wilson, who is currently under house arrest in Somerville, claims he acted in self-defense, but the prosecution argues that he attacked Colono.

The case immediately attracted national media attention. Court TV is covering the case—and is planning to broadcast the trial.

Catherine Crier, who hosts a daily legal talk show on the network, says the case appeals to the public because it presents a twist on a typical class conflict.

“The defendant’s resume...could work both for and against him. Many people will feel that a spotless record, good family and prestigious school should give subtle credence to his story,” Crier writes in an e-mail. “Others might see the reverse, a spoiled young man living a life of privilege, who tried to bully someone he perceived as ‘beneath’ his station.”

But defense attorney Denner says that the extent to which the media has framed the case as a battle between haves and have-nots is a gross exaggeration of the truth.

“The appeal is obviously the purported clash of class structures which really isn’t true,” Denner says. “It’s a fault line that the media can run with.”

Denner adds that regardless of the outcome of the case, he thinks Harvard’s reputation will emerge unscathed.

“I think Harvard is an institution that outlasts any good or bad publicity it gets over time. It exists beyond that and transcends momentary consideration,” he says.

University spokesperson Joe Wrinn also says he hopes that Pring-Wilson’s status as a Harvard student will not adversely impact the University.

“Violent crime is a very bad thing no matter what school is affiliated with it,” he says. “Town residents and city officials have said that this doesn’t reflect in a general way the University. We answered that a lot in the few days after it.”

Spikes, Not Waves

Two unrelated series of incidents allegedly perpetrated by juveniles hit Harvard this year.

Three unarmed robberies and two assaults hit Harvard Yard in a 10-day time period in November, and a small group of Cambridge Rindge and Latin students were arrested in connection with two of those incidents.

In February, a 16-year-old white male was arrested for two stabbings near the Quad. The victims were not affiliated with the University, but the incidents occurred on Harvard property.

These two series of violent crimes were unrelated, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano says.

The crimes raised the visibility of juvenile crime on campus—and caused localized spikes in the crime rate—but police say that these incidents are not part of any-long term crime wave, nor have they significantly impacted Harvard’s yearly crime statistics.

But Catalano says that Harvard took the crimes seriously because they threatened the safety of passers-by in the Yard, and according to him the University has worked closely with Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) officials to prevent future crimes.

Frank D. Pasquarello, a spokesperson for the Cambridge Police Department (CPD), says that the handful of incidents at Harvard are not comparable to rising crime in Cambridge—which he says might be more serious—but he says CPD felt the Yard assaults were still a problem.

“[Because of] the large amount of stabbings in short period of time, we knew we had a problem,” Pasquarello says.

Catalano points out that one of the victims in the November robberies was a CRLS student, who was reportedly mugged by four high school-age students in the Yard during broad daylight.

“HUPD did not want to be in the position to paint all of CRLS students with a broad brush. We don’t generalize the behavior of all students by just a few,” he says.

According to Catalano, HUPD worked with school officials to restore order and prevent further violence without blocking the community’s access to the Yard.

“[School officials] sent a message to the whole student body and to particular individuals and warned them to be respectful of Harvard’s property,” he says.

John G. Silva, the director of safety and security for Cambridge public schools, says CPD, HUPD, MIT police, District Attorney officials and others meet on a regular basis to review juvenile crime in the area—fostering a relationship which he says has been successful in stopping young people from committing crimes.

November’s spike was not out of the ordinary, according to Silva.

“Street crime is streaky. They’ll be a spike here and a spike there, but we don’t have a problem with it regularly,” he says. “To tell the truth I have to say I believe the crime rate has gone down.”

Pasquarello says the incidence of juvenile crime in Cambridge this year isn’t out of the ordinary—but that the manner in which the crimes occurred was unusual.

“In most juvenile crimes we see, the people know each other and there’s some rivalry between them,” he says. “The ones that occurred on Harvard property were strictly random acts of violence.”

Playing It Safe

Since Sept. 11, Harvard has taken substantial measures to ensure that it is prepared to weather any emergency.

The University formed the IST—which is comprised of a dozen top school officials—implemented a comprehensive Crisis Management Plan, and tested the plan’s effectiveness using table-top drills and simulations.

Associate Vice President of Facilities and Operations Thomas E. Vautin says that in the past year the University has put together emergency management teams within Harvard’s different schools and departments to respond to more localized crises.

Harvard has also implemented a fast automatic emergency notification system for key administrators, the IST and the Crisis Management Team, according to Vautin, and created an official emergency website for the University that has been used as a source of information for the entire community.

This website has already been used to provide updates about the national terror alerts issued during the past semester.

Vautin says the whole process has been designed for easy updates and refinements when unexpected events such as SARS challenge the safety of the community.

In line with this goal of continuous improvement, Vautin says, the University is currently looking for the means to house and feed large numbers of students if dorms ever needed to be evacuated.

“The good news is that the new crisis management structure is positioned to identify these issues and act quickly to address them,” Vautin writes in an e-mail.

Vautin says the plans will be perfected next year as more specific responses are defined and tested.

More visible security precautions have also been taken at locations around the University this year, according to Vautin.

Security officers now check University IDs at the Holyoke Center, and a team of HUPD officers and security guards have a new post at the entrance to the Yard behind Widener.

Heightened security also marked last year’s Commencement exercises.

After a Palestinian activist and suspected terrorist was arrested in Harvard Square just a week before Commencement, the University instituted a “lock-down” during graduation exercises—installing metal detectors at Yard entrances and bringing state and federal agencies such as the National Guard and explosives experts with bomb-sniffing dogs.

But Catalano says HUPD won’t comment on specific security procedures for this year’s exercises.

“We will work with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to ensure that we maintain a safe and secure Commencement as we do with other major events that we handle,” he says.

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.