A federal court in Missouri ruled last Wednesday that campus crime reports cannot be withheld from the public.

The ruling challenges the U.S. Department of Education's interpretation of the 1974 Family Rights and Privacy Act, or Buckley Amendment, which enables students to examine their educational records and in most cases bars universities from releasing those records without the students' consent.

The department said that campus crime reports are part of a student's educational records and therefore are protected by the Buckley Amendment.

The question arose last January when Traci Bauer, editor of the Southwest Standard, a student newspaper at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo., filed suit against the university after it refused to release a crime report to the newspaper.

Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., said the university should have released the report because campus crime reports are not educational records and therefore not included in the Buckley Amendment.

A Penn State official said the ruling will not affect Penn State's policy for releasing crime reports.

"We've always taken the position that general information about crimes reported to the campus police should be available to the public," said Tom Harmon, director of University Police Services.

A survey conducted by Goodman's office in 1989 asked other universities if they released crime reports. Fifteen universities said they did. This information was used as testimony in Bauer's court case.

The surveys were given to Southwest Missouri State's lawyers, who contacted the U.S. Department of Education. The department then sent letters to the 15 universities, including Iowa State University, Western Kentucky University and Colorado State University, explaining that releasing crime reports violated the Buckley Amendment, Goodman said.

Bauer said she was surprised that in the 50-page court order, U.S. District Court Judge Russell G. Clark not only said releasing crime reports is not a violation of the Buckley Amendment but that refusing to release them is unconstitutional under the First and Fifth Amendments.

Dave Stormer, Penn State's assistant vice president of Safety and Environmental Services, said he agrees with the court's decision and added that the Department of Education's interpretation of the Buckley Amendment makes little sense.

Bauer said the Southwest Missouri State University's Campus Security Department released crime reports until she requested a report in the spring of 1989 about an alleged rape involving one of the school's basketball players. Bauer said it was the first time the school refused to release a report on the grounds that it would violate the Buckley Ammendment.

Some universities do not want to release information because they are afraid of bad publicity, Harmon said. "Bad publicity does not outweigh the importance of being open and honest with the public," Harmon said.

Both Charles Hosler, Penn State's acting executive vice president and provost, and Robert Dunham, university vice president and vice provost, said the University interprets the Buckley Amendment as only applying to academic records and adheres to the law as interpreted by the court.

The policy allows for the release of arrested persons' names only if that person has been arraigned and formally charged with a crime. However, an investigation could be grounds for witholding information, Harmon said.

Southwest Missouri State University's Board of Regents will not appeal the case, said Paul Kincaid, director of the university relations department.

A Department of Education spokesperson said the department is reviewing the case and had no comment on the school's decision not to appeal.

Violation of the Buckley Amendment could result in federal funding cuts. The institutions and universities who received letters from the Department of Education now must decide whether to follow the court's ruling.

Iowa State University's Police Chief Loras Jaeger said Iowa State will not release the names of victims and arrested persons until the court decision is reviewed. It will instead send names to the municipal department who can release the information to the media.

At Colorado State University, Keith Miser, vice president of student affairs, said the university will review the case further before it releases names.

But Paul Bunch, director of public safety at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., said he agreed with the court's decision. "I think the decision was right and it was fair. The public has a right to know," Bunch said.