Concerns about campus crime are up in the wake of two shootings in two months, but University officials say they are looking crime straight in the face.
When reporting annual crime statistics, as mandated by the Jeanne Ann Clery Act -- named in honor of a Lehigh University freshman who was killed in her dorm in 1986 -- Penn safety administrators say they are doing everything right.
Members of the public "want to see what the University is doing to confront these challenges," Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. "We believe honesty is the best medicine for any situation."
The law requires universities to report and disclose crimes such as murder, sex offenses and robberies to the Department of Education and the public.
Aside from requiring that institutions report crimes that occur on and off campus and within dormitories, the law also states that colleges should include crimes that occur on public properties when they are "immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus."
"We err on the side of over- rather than underreporting," Rush said.
But Penn wasn't always up to par on its performance. The University was found to not be in compliance with the Clery Act in 1998. Rush said the problem stemmed from confusion regarding the guidelines for reporting alcoholic citations.
Drexel University, however, interprets the law more loosely.
In an e-mail statement, Bernard Gollotti, Drexel's Senior Associate Vice President for Public Safety, wrote that crime statistics for 2004 included only buildings that were "owned, operated or managed by the university for the institution's educational purposes."
While Penn -- with a total student population of about 23,300 -- reported 65 robberies, nine aggravated assaults and eight sex offenses for 2004, Drexel reported two robberies, 20 aggravated assaults and one sexual assault for a student population of roughly 18,000.
Gollotti said that the difference reflects the fact that Drexel's campus is much smaller and that the University lacks its own police department.
"Half of our undergraduates are away from campus on ... jobs at any given time," he added.
Rush said that universities often have trouble classifying crimes when they occur on nearby public property. The 216-page Clery handbook does offer guidelines for such instances, but the situation can differ from case to case.
For instance, Drexel recently added two robberies that were not included in its initial 2004 report -- including an incident that occurred outside the school's reporting boundary. After speaking to a student involved, school officials decided that the incident should have been included in its report since the student was robbed within the school's patrol boundary.
The law "does not clearly define a college's boundary for reporting incidents, leaving room for interpretation," Gollotti said.
He said it would be easier if the law specified campus boundaries with specific measurements.
Alison Kiss, program director for Security on Campus -- an advocacy group founded by Jeanne Clery's parents -- said that while the discrepancies among how colleges file their crime statistics may make some colleges seem more dangerous than others, it is important to be as accurate and honest as possible.
"A smaller school or a no-name school might immediately be hurt," she said. "But there has to be time to repair the harm that's been done to the community."
Clery transparency - The Jeanne Ann Cleary Act was named in honor of a Lehigh University freshman who was killed in her dorm in 1986 - The law requires universities to report and disclose crimes such as murder, sex offenses and robberies to the Department of Education and the public - After failing to comply in 1998, Penn has become a model for proper compliance - Drexel uses less strict guidelines than Penn when reporting crime on its campus
