Slain Student's Parents Support Disclosure Bill

BOSTON--Parents of a student who was raped and murdered in her dormitory room in 1986 yesterday urged the state legislature to force colleges and universities to release information on campus crime.

"One of the best kept secrets [on college campuses] is the extent of serious crime," said Howard Clery, whose daughter attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. "Campus police are fighting a losing battle."

Clery testified in support of a House bill to require colleges to give crime statistics and an overview of campus security to applicants, employees, students and state officials.

"If [students] aren't forewarned, how can they be forearmed?" Constance Clery asked members of the Committee on Education, Arts and Humanities.

But members of organizations representing private colleges and universities said the required reports would be misleading.

Clare M. Cotton, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts, said the rate of crime would be distorted because of many colleges' high proportion of commuting students.

Cotton said that crime rates are usually given in crimes per 100,000 people. "Colleges don't come in units of 100,000," he said.

Cotton added that requiring colleges to send reports to every applicant would be a major burden.

"The documentation required is vast," he said, adding that the cost of producings reports will "go into the tuition somewhere."

Howard Clery said he had students ask about crime at Ivy League schools, but admissions officers did not have appropriate information.

If applicants ask about campus crime, interviewers will "shoot you down" and suggest that that they may not be ready to leave home, Clery said.

In an earlier interview, Cotton said that his group thinks it should be the applicant's responsibility to request information about crime. "We believe that you should have asked those questions when you came to look at the school," he said.

John W. Spillane, who represents 101 private high schools and colleges, said providing the information would not be a large burden, but added that the state should not get involved in the educational process.

Spillane said that the bill could interfere with the "very special liaison" many campus police officials have with local police.

A national association of campus police chiefs is on record in favor of mandatory disclosure of crime figures.

Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson has said he supports the bill.

According to lobbyist John Doherty, the bill has a good chance of passing and has the support of House and Senate leaders and the chancellor of higher education.

Cotton also said that "many" Massachusetts colleges and universities are already reporting their crime figures to the state.

But according to a state report for 1986, the last year for which statistics are available, only 10 of the state's approximately 150 institutions filed the figures.