University at Albany Hate Crime Reporting Page

The University at Albany is committed to a campus environment that supports diversity, equity and inclusion and will provide support to individuals who report incidents of bias or hate.

What is a bias act?

A bias act is conduct that adversely and unfairly targets an individual or group based on the social identity categories of national origin, ethnicity, race, age, religion, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, color, creed, marital status, any combination of these characteristics or any other group protected by law.

The perpetrators may be known or unknown. The act may be verbal, written, or physical, and occur on a UAlbany campus or within an area that affects the campus community. Activities protected by the First Amendment will not constitute bias acts. 

We encourage any campus community member who experiences or witnesses a bias act to report this incident by using the Bias Incident Reporting Form.  

This information is reported to the University’s Bias Incident Response Team. More information about the team can be found on their website: https://www.albany.edu/diversity-and-inclusion/bias-incident-response-team.

What is a hate crime?

Per New York State Penal Law § 485.05: A person commits a hate crime when he or she commits a specified criminal offense and either intentionally commits the act or intentionally selects the person against whom the offense is committed in whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation of a person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct. 

In keeping with the New York State Law (NYS EDN Article 129-A, section 6433) the University at Albany is reporting on Hate Crimes that have occurred on campus for the past three years.

Hate Offense Statistics

  • For Calendar Year 2020 there was one (1) report of making graffiti evidencing national origin bias that occurred on campus in a residential hall.

  • For Calendar Year 2021 there was one (1) report of making graffiti evidencing racial bias that occurred on campus.

  • For Calendar Year 2022 there was one (1) report of illegal posting of flyers evidencing religious and racial bias that occurred on campus.

The above statistics are representative of the Federal Hate Crime definition which is broader than the New York State definition as the Federal definition captures all criminal offenses, and the New York State definition only includes certain specified offenses.

We encourage any campus community member who experiences or witnesses a Hate Crime to report this incident immediately by contacting the University Police Department at (518)442-3131.