Watchdog group examines Yale crime reporting

A watchdog group that tracks crime on college campuses is calling for a federal investigation into what it is calling Yale University's failure to report all crime statistics.

The charges, being levied by the group Security On Campus, Inc., were first raised by an article in the Yale Alumni Magazine entitled "Lux, Veritas and Sexual Trespass." The author, Emily Bazelon, wrote that Yale did not factor in to their crime reports sexual assault and other crime statistics from officials other than the police.

Daniel Carter, senior vice president of Security on Campus, requested in a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that "both the Department and the University take immediate action to ensure that the crime statistics due by Oct. 1 for the 2001, 2002 and 2003 calendar years are accurate and complete."

If proven guilty of misreporting statistics, Yale would be found in violation of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The university could face up to a $27,500 fine per each unreported statistic.

Yale officials denied the allegations and maintain that the campus statistics are accurate.

"We make the report each year to the Federal Department of Education as required," Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said. "We believe we do a very good job and we will continue to work."

The act in question was put into motion by Connie and Howard Clery, parents of Jeanne Clery, when their daughter was violently raped and murdered at Lehigh University in 1986.

Since then, the Clerys have been committed to campus security, establishing Security on Campus, Inc. The company investigates image-conscious schools that work with crime internally rather than reporting it to the police.

"Whenever a student ... believes that, hypothetically, she has been a victim of a sexual assault and comes to the university for assistance, that student is encouraged to do whatever she thinks is the best course -- including going to the authorities or the police," Conroy said.

The investigation began when a friend of the Clery family who is a Yale alumnus saw the Yale Alumni Magazine article. "He saw the references in there in regards to the Clery Act. He forwarded it to the Clerys, and they instructed me to make sure that the correct action was taken," Carter said.

Carter's inquiry began as an independent investigation. Reviewing the article as well as Yale's statistics and policies, he spoke with the author and found it necessary to move forward with a formal complaint.

Carter has yet to hear of any progress in the case. "Their public comments are vague at best."

Yale previously took pride in having the lowest number of sex crimes out of all Ivy League universities, with only five cases of sexual assault last year out of a student body of 11,126.

"Yale was advertising how safe they were in relation to other Ivy League schools, and when you are talking about failing to collect all the statistics you are supposed to do, it can have an effect," Carter said.

In 2003, the Clerys presented Penn with the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award after the University installed an extensive video surveillance program. Since then, Penn's crime rate has dropped.

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