Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 23, 1991                   TAG: 9103230044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LEE MITGANG ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MO. COURT RULING MAY SHED LIGHT ON CAMPUS CRIME

Reports of murders, rapes and major drug busts have stripped college campuses of their painstakingly cultivated image of serenity.

A survey by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Campus Violence at Towson State University found that 37 percent of the nation's undergraduates become victims of crime by the time they leave college - most commonly, theft. Still, the true extent of serious crime on campus remains a mystery - thanks to a general reluctance by colleges to discuss it, and to the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which for 17 years has shielded a variety of student records from public disclosure.

But on March 14, U.S. District Court Judge Russell Clark in Springfield, Mo., blew a hole in that law, also known as the Buckley Act after its sponsor, former Sen. James Buckley, R-N.Y.

Clark ordered Southwest Missouri State University to divulge campus crime reports to a student newspaper reporter, including names of student victims, witnesses and suspects. The university said it would not appeal.

The decision was hailed by student newspapers and the general media eager for help in shedding light on the campus crime issue.

But there may be less to the ruling than meets the eye.

So far, its chief accomplishment has been to put the U.S. Department of Education in the awkward position of upholding a 1974 law that many campus officials now feel is out of touch with the public's alarm over campus crime.

The Education Department is consulting with the U.S. Justice Department about possible actions in light of Clark's ruling. A source familiar with those discussions said the government may legally challenge the Missouri decision.

Campus officials said it was understandable that the department would feel obligated not to abandon a 17-year-old federal law on the strength of one district judge's ruling. But some were also left baffled by the zeal the Education Department has displayed recently in defending the act, which critics perceive as an outdated shield for criminal acts simply because they were committed on campus. Several campus security spokesmen said the ruling made sense in light of the growing clamor for campus disclosure.

In fact, many colleges had been quietly ignoring the act, releasing crime reports daily to the media well before the Missouri decision.

Furthermore, nearly all states have open record laws, and where such laws conflict with the Buckley Act, schools generally have opted for openness, said David Stormer, head of safety at Penn State University and president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.