State audit finds a number of California colleges did not accurately disclose campus-area crimes
May 10--A number of California colleges, public and private, are out of compliance with a federal law requiring disclosure of crimes at or near their campuses, the state auditor said Thursday.
The schools publicly reported inaccurate crime statistics and never told parents and students about programs for combatting violence against women, as required, the audit found.
In one case, Berkeley City College failed to publicly disclose a rape and a stalking that occurred in 2016, instead reporting on its website that no crimes had occurred.
Such errors make it hard for students to make informed decisions about where to enroll, according to a new state audit of six campuses up and down the state.
Colleges and universities that participate in the federal financial aid program have to comply with the Clery Act, which requires them to publicize crimes of all kinds. The law was enacted in 1990, four years after Jeanne Clery, 19, was raped and slain at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Her parents had no idea that several violent crimes had occurred in the area around campus.
The U.S. Department of Education can impose fines of up to $54,789 per violation. In California, the auditor monitors compliance by studying at least six colleges every three years.
The audit found disclosure errors in 20 percent of the crimes examined collectively at four of the schools, including San Jose State in the Bay Area. The audit found the errors by examining incident reports of each crime and interviewing staff, then comparing that with how the crime was publicly reported.
This year, Auditor Elaine Howle intentionally included two other schools, Berkeley City College and West Los Angeles Community College, because their cities have plenty of crime and each school enrolls more than 5,000 students -- yet neither disclosed any crimes to the public.
The West L.A. disclosure was accurate, Howle's audit found. The Berkeley City College disclosure was not, because it ignored the 2016 rape and stalking cases.
The audit revealed that the Peralta Community College District, which compiles the Clery disclosures for its member colleges, including Berkeley City, had been requesting crime data from the wrong people at the Berkeley Police Department since 2014.
The error meant that the college failed to comply with another federal requirement: actively warning students and employees about serious threats to their safety. That requirement goes beyond disclosing the crimes on the schools' website.
"Because it was not aware of the rape incident that it did not report, Berkeley City College was not able to issue a timely warning to its students and employees," the report found.
The other four schools audited were San Jose State, Humboldt State, Bakersfield Community College and Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian school near Los Angeles.
Altogether, the schools disclosed 1,267 crimes in 2016, from car theft, burglary and robbery to arson, assault and rape.
Howle's audit looked at how 212 of those crimes were disclosed and found errors in 42 of them -- a 20 percent error rate.
Of these, the schools failed to disclose 11 crimes required to be publicly reported under the Clery Act, incorrectly disclosed 25 crimes, and miscategorized six crimes, the audit found. Only Humboldt updated its crime logs as required.
And only Azusa fully disclosed to the public all 58 policies and regulations required in schools' annual security reports. Missing from the five others, for example, were policies on campus sex offense programs and procedures.
The audit included several recommendations to implement by August so that the campuses and the offices that oversee them -- California State University and community college districts -- can fix the problems.
The recommendations primarily involved improving communication and updating official guidance for campuses. All but Azusa agreed to comply, the audit said.
"San Jose State University ... will clarify and update policies as appropriate," Charlie Faas, the school's vice president for administration and finance, told The Chronicle, adding that the campus is hiring a Clery compliance officer.
Jon Wallace, president of Azusa, said that while he agrees with the audit's positive findings about his school, he "respectfully disagrees" that Azusa made any inaccurate report.
Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
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