Data on hate crimes to offer gauge of quality of life on campus

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES MAY have a new tool for evaluating the safety and overall climate of their campuses under an initiative announced in early April by President Clinton. As part of a White House conference on hate crimes, the president called on the U.S. Department of Education to gather and disseminate statistics about hate crimes on campus.

Compliance with the directive could yield valuable data by which faculty members could gauge the frequency of and institutional responses to incidents of bias-related violence on their campuses. Prodding from the chief executive builds on provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1998, signed into law last October.

The law directs colleges and universities to inform the federal education department of hate crimes that resulted in bodily injury. Its signing coincided with a national outcry sparked by the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay student enrolled at the University of Wyoming. Faculty and campus safety advocates welcome the enhanced gathering of crime data. In the past, they say, some administrations have proved reluctant to disclose data about hate crimes, afraid it would hurt recruitment of prospective students and faculty.

"There are campuses where the administration is interested in portraying a very safe image, especially to parents; perhaps this is more true at private institutions than public ones," says Bryan Byers, a criminal justice professor at Ball State University who has studied hate crimes. As administrations' reporting of hate crimes becomes more consistent, he adds, "hate-crimes data can be one indicator of quality of life on campuses.

"Reporting data is a first step," says Myra Kodner, an information and research specialist at Security on Campus, a national antiviolence group based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. "It heightens awareness and gives people the power to protect themselves."