Your editorial, ‘Wrong Approach to Sex Crimes,’ mistakenly assumes that Boston University has not complied with its obligations under the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act (Dec. 5, pg. 10). The Oct. 28 date was the date by which Boston University and all other colleges and universities which receive federal funds were to provide information to members of their campus communities regarding how to obtain information about individuals convicted of certain sex crimes if they work at or are enrolled at that school. This obligation involved the obligation of each of the states to have that information made available.
Regardless of whether you believe the law is a good law or a bad law, effective or ineffective, your editorial misperceives and misstates the role of the university (and other colleges and universities). The law requires each state to have mechanisms in place to ensure that each state will convey information to law enforcement officials at colleges and universities concerning convicted sex offenders who are identified as potential students or employees of the college or university, as the October 2002 Guidelines of the U.S. Department of Justice make clear:
‘Under the requirements of the Act, state procedures must also ensure that information concerning a registrant enrolled or working at an institution of higher education is promptly made available to a law enforcement agency having jurisdiction where the institution is located, and entered into the appropriate state records or data system. Subsection (j) does not place any burden on an educational institution to request information about registrants enrolled or employed at the institution from the state, and the requirement that the state make the information available to a law enforcement agency having jurisdiction where the institution is located is not contingent on a request from the institution.’
That’s the law and the Department of Justice regulation. Boston University, as well as other colleges and universities in Massachusetts, has been seeking to have the commonwealth make available the data it is required by federal law to have available. Indeed, failure of a state to comply may reduce the amount of federal aid received by the state. As stated in the Department of Justice regulations, colleges and universities are not expected to provide information to the state, which apparently seems to you to be an acceptable excuse for the state’s failure to comply.
The university cannot publish or make available to students and other members of the university community data which the commonwealth has not yet made available, despite the federal law that requires that it do so. The university has been working with the commonwealth to attempt to speed up the date by which the data will be available.
Your editorial reveals much ignorance about the law. As soon as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts makes available the information required under the act, the university will be able to comply with its obligation to inform members of the university how to access such data. The current information provided by the university i.e., that members of the university community may contact the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board to obtain information does not pass the buck. It directs members of our community to the organization that has the data but which has not yet made such data available to our police department.
Pending compliance by the commonwealth with the mandates of the federal law, that is all that can be done.
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