The recently released 2001 Annual Crime Report failed to include two reports of forcible sex offenses and two reports of robbery, according to a review of the statistics by University Police.

The errors were discovered in mid-October, after a University Police records clerk noticed that a robbery appearing in the university's database did not appear in the crime report, released in late September. The department subsequently reviewed other statistics in the report and noticed additional errors.

According to Assistant Police Chief Ken Overholt, the errors resulted from a glitch in the computer software the department uses for record keeping.

"We agonize over this thing every year," said Overholt, who oversees compilation of the report. "Now we know that we cannot completely depend on the computer system."

One of the missing forcible sexual offenses was reported to local police in 2000, bringing the total number of reported forcible sex offenses that year to five. The other was reported to University Police in 2001, bringing the total to three.

Both omitted robberies were reported to University Police in 2001.

The crime report is compiled annually in compliance with the Clery Act, named in memory of 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery, who was assaulted and murdered in 1986 while asleep in her residence hall room.

Jeanne's parents discovered that students hadn't been told about 38 violent crimes on Lehigh's campus in the three years before her murder. In 1990, they joined with other campus crime victims and persuaded Congress to enact new laws requiring universities to make crime report statistics available.

The laws, enforced by the Department of Education, require all public and private postsecondary education institutions participating in federal student aid programs to publish an annual report by Oct. 1 of each year containing three years worth of campus crime statistics and certain security policy statements. The report must be made available automatically to all current students and employees and may also be posted on the Internet.

Statistics for the report are gathered from all campus security authorities, including campus police, local law enforcement, judicial affairs and residence life and housing.

In certain cases, schools that fail to comply are subject to fines or loss of federal funding.

Junior Kari Erickson, a member of the Women's Initiative for Support and Empowerment was upset to learn of the misreporting of sexual offenses.

"With so many crimes of sexual assault already going unreported and people having no idea of the number of sexual crimes on this campus, the fact that there have been these mix-ups on top of all that becomes increasingly frustrating for someone who is concerned with these issues," Erickson said.

University Police Chief Regina Lawson said underreporting of sexual assaults is a national problem, as many women are afraid or unwilling to come forward.

"This is an ongoing challenge," Lawson said.

A 1997 survey of Wake Forest students conducted by PREPARE found that about 11 percent of women reported being sexually assaulted during their college career. The number of forcible sex offenses appearing in the annual crime report, however, remains much lower, since many of these cases are never reported to a campus security authority.

Erickson hopes to work with other campus organizations to administer a survey similar to the 1997 one to gather more recent data about sexual assault on campus.

University Police said they are working with other local colleges to develop a form for anonymous reporting of sexual assaults, which could then be included in the annual crime report.

"The form could be used by victims who, for whatever reason, don't want to file a police report," Overholt said. He added, however, that the completion of such a form would not preclude victims from making a police report at a later date.

University Police has notified the Department of Education of the errors in the report and corrected the statistics given to that office. The corrected crime report is available at www.wfu.edu/police. University Police also plans to send students and employees a notification explaining the errors.

According to Overholt, errors of this kind are not uncommon in attempts to comply with the Clery Act. He added that the act has seen frequent amendments, and schools often have difficulty keeping up with the changes.

"Ken (Overholt) has other things to do and (compiling the report) is not a full-time job, but it has almost evolved into a full-time responsibility," Lawson said.