Pubdate: Wed, 15 Sep 1999
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, The (US)
Copyright: 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Contact:  http://chronicle.com/
Author: Patrick Healy

EDUCATION DEPT. SAYS COLLEGE OMITTED INCIDENTS FROM CAMPUS-CRIME REPORTS

West Virginia Wesleyan College did not report 27 incidents of burglary and
marijuana possession -- as well as one of aggravated assault -- on required
federal tallies of campus crime between 1994 and 1996, according to U.S.
Education Department investigators.

In a report sent to the college Thursday and made public this week, the
department ordered West Virginia Wesleyan to review and tighten policies so
all cases of crime are listed accurately and made known to students and the
public.

West Virginia Wesleyan officials said Tuesday they objected to some of the
findings and believed others were overly technical. They plan to respond
next week to the department, which gave them until early October to take
corrective steps.

A national campus-safety organization and a West Virginia private
investigator sent a complaint to the department in 1997 accusing the college
of falsifying crime statistics. But after a 17-month review, federal
investigators concluded that most of the errors were not purposeful. Rather,
the report said, they stemmed from technical miscoding of crimes and a lack
of clear information among college officials about requirements under the
federal Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990.

"While certain exceptions were identified, the review team's analysis
suggests that these findings are the result of weaknesses in the
institution's security operation, were not intentional, and are not
indicative of fraud," the report stated.

The review was the department's sixth major investigation of college
compliance with the federal campus-crime act. Federal investigators
interviewed college officials and checked statistics against hundreds of
documents. They found that the college:

Omitted mandatory information about some policies and drug- and
alcohol-abuse programs from campus-security reports.

Did not include hate-crime statistics in the 1994-96 reports.

46ailed to report all incidents covered under federal law and statutes. The
college listed incidents of larceny and theft when those should have been
called burglary, under the Federal Bureau of Investigation's reporting
system; an incident of battery, in 1996, should have been listed as
aggravated assault. West Virginia Wesleyan officials on Tuesday called the
department's findings "preliminary" and likely to change based on their
responses. But department officials said the report was final, though they
planned to close the case file with a final letter based partly on the
college's response.

David McCauley, the college's general legal counsel, said the institution
had made some "honest mistakes" among the hundreds of crime incidents that
it had reported over the years. "If you put any other college or university
to the same test that we've been put to in the last two years, our college
would fare very well," he said.

Mr. McCauley objected especially to the department's finding that the
college did not list hate-crime statistics in its 1994-96 reports. He said
federal law requires such reporting only in certain cases of violent crime
- -- and that no hate-crime incidents occurred.

But a department official, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday that West
Virginia Wesleyan and all colleges are required to list a number for those
crimes, even if it is zero.

The department's report was circulated this week by Security on Campus,
Inc., a non-profit national watchdog that was one of the two groups that
requested the investigation.

S. Daniel Carter, vice-president of Security on Campus, said Tuesday that
colleges should take notice that federal officials are serious about
enforcing the 1990 campus-crime law.

"We're saddened to see that schools are continuing, almost a decade out, not
being honest and forthright about their campus crime," Mr. Carter said.

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