The University at Buffalo is on a long list of State University of New York (SUNY) campuses that have reported inaccurate campus crime statistics to the federal Department of Education (DoE), according to the Office of the New York State Comptroller.
On Monday, the New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli issued a press release that named 19 colleges out of the 29 audited SUNY campuses that have reported information to the DoE that does not match their internal records.
Through campus visits, the office discovered that small discrepancies existed in information provided by 19 schools. Sixteen universities did not disclose four or more of the required disclosures on their annual security reports.
UB underreported 20 incidences and 75 incidences of disciplinary action in 2006 to the Department of Education, according to reports.
"Under the requirement, [UB] didn't report situations where there is disciplinary action. [Disciplinary actions] haven't been classified as crimes, but they have to be reported. There were 43 drug offences, 27 liquor offences and five weapon instances," Freeman said.
The crime statistics investigated in the current report date from Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2006. According to a press release, there were also discrepancies in the annual security reports created for students and staff in addition to the information provided to the DoE.
"Our audit looked at 29 colleges to see if what they report to the DoE matched with their annual reports," Freeman said. "Those numbers didn't match. The numbers should all be consistent. We visited four campuses to take a look at their numbers," said Jennifer Freeman, spokeswoman for the DoE.
The purpose of the audit was to verify campus safety and security information under the Clery Act, which aims to empower people with important information when choosing a college, according to the audit objectives of the Office of New York State Comptroller.
"Basically the federal government has a requirement called the Clery Act, named after the student that was killed in her dorm room in 1986," Freeman said, referring to Lehigh University student Jeanne Clery who was a freshman at the time of her death. "People know what crimes [and] where they took place so they can protect themselves."
The act requires all public and private universities to provide and distribute crime information, which parents and prospective students can utilize in choosing a college to attend.
Chief of University Police Gerald Schoenle explained that the University Police Department (UPD) left out minor crimes in the reports because UPD didn't know reporting minor drug offences was required.
"They say there were 20 crimes that were underreported. It was an error on our part-17 of those crimes involve other arrests. We reported the higher crimes; we did not report the lower-level drug charges," Schoenle said.
In the remaining three crimes that were not reported to the DoE, the UPD did not report stolen vehicles that were reported to UB from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Schoenle explains that the discrepancy was unintentional and in some cases, the UPD over-reported crime. Differences in documented numbers were because of calculation errors.
"We over-reported 37 burglaries in the community around the university," Schoenle said, explaining this information was left out in the press release because the Office of the New York State Comptroller may have wanted to emphasize discrepancies.
UB, along with many other SUNY colleges, was found in compliance with timely reporting notices standards in response to crimes. However, this was left out of reports.
"The most critical part is the timely reporting notices. I was disappointed that they left it out," Schoenle said.
There was no evidence that the universities were deliberately withholding crime information. Freeman explained many factors played a part in the inconsistencies including problems in the preparation of information, errors by university staff and a lack of understanding contributed to the inconsistent information.
"We didn't find any information that indicated schools were deliberately withholding crime statistics. It was sloppy bookkeeping," Freeman said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
