Education Dept. Fines UT Arlington for Misreporting Crime Data
May 09, 2013
The University of Texas at Arlington faces an $82,500 fine for misclassifying crimes and underreporting disciplinary actions, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Under the federal campus crime reporting law known as the Clery Act, institutions participating in Title IV programs are required to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses.
According to a 2011 review by the U.S. Education Department, the Arlington campus improperly classified a forcible sex offense as an assault and an aggravated assault as an assault of a family member. Additionally, the department found that the university excluded 27 liquor, drug, and weapons violations “ classified as “disciplinary actions” “ from crime statistics that by law must be submitted to federal officials and distributed publicly each year.
“Statistical data . . . must be accurate and reliable,” the Education Department wrote in a letter to UT-Arlington President James D. Spaniolo. “These failures have endangered UTA’s students and employees who must be able to rely on the disclosures . . . to take precautions for their safety.”
Related Links:
U.S. Education Department’s Letter to the University of Texas at Arlington
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/1182_001.pdf
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Michelle Cormier Mott
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