Private universities continue to keep serious crimes secret
While eight states (California, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) have specific legislation forcing private universities to make campus crime information public, many states still allow students at private universities to live in the dark. The Daily Orange student newspaper at Syracuse University in New York wrote a well-researched
story about how their campus police hide behind FERPA to keep campus crime secret, even serious crimes. The paper shows how the police are just plain wrong in their interpretation (serious crimes are not considered secret "educational records" under FERPA - see the Student Press Law Center's
guide to campus crime as well as
Security on Campus' discussion of the Clery Act). However, the question about whether private universities are subject to state open record laws is the principal issue and one that needs clarification by state legislatures. Every state legislature should adopt statutes specifically requiring private universities to be subject to the open record laws, for the safety of students.