Texas State has been misreporting campus crime stats

SAN MARCOS, Texas - The Department of Education recently put a magnifying glass on Texas State University after an uptick in crime in San Marcos over the past several months. According to students, the word of crime around town spread quickly.

“I usually hear about it via email or some of my friends they will post it on Twitter,” TSU student Noah Ezigbo-Dessesaure said.

It was discovered by the feds and Texas State that the school had in fact been underreporting crimes, including sexual assault, on the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses. And the numbers are higher than what's been reported.

“They did not feel the numbers they saw in the report were necessarily in line with what they would have expected given the size of our institution and the crime rate in the community,” said Eric Algo, VP of Finance at Texas State University.

It is the school's responsibility to follow the Clery Act, which requires universities to accurately report crime data.

“We take it very seriously and that's why we are committed to getting it right and being as transparent as possible. There has been underreporting," Algoe said. "We do know just our initial compilation of data that the numbers will go up."

Algoe says the school is working closely with the Department of Education to release the correct numbers.

“All of our energy had been focused on getting it right this time but we will be looking into what went wrong and what happened after we get this thing published,” said Algoe.

The school is hoping correcting the problem can assure prospective students and parents that their campus officials will always remain 100 percent transparent about what goes on.