At least three Pennsylvania universities have recently come under fire for shoddy campus crime-reporting practices, but officials say students shouldn't worry about the numbers at Penn State.

After an investigation by The Philadelphia Inquirer showed more sexual assaults and burglaries had occurred at West Chester University than were reported to the U.S. Department of Education, the university was forced to revise the original figures.

Other Philadelphia-area schools, including LaSalle University, Drexel University and, in 1998, the University of Pennsylvania, were also found to have incorrectly reported data to the federal government.

Penn State University Police Director Bruce Kline said that although he feels an obligation to give the correct information to the public, gathering the numbers is frustrating at times.

"It is a nuisance, but it's probably easier here than in a city like Philadelphia," he said.

The legislation says police have to report offenses on property and public areas adjacent to the campus, Kline said.

"Does that mean the sidewalk? Beaver Ave.? How far do you go?" he said. It's an issue police have to deal with, he said.

Kline said that once Penn State designated the on-and-off-campus boundaries, the process of reporting crimes became easier. The university decided to include College Avenue and its sidewalk in the on-campus statistics -- everything past those parameters, including fraternities, is included in the off-campus numbers.

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said Penn State has not had too many complications with reporting crimes either on or off campus.

"It is a common problem with universities as big as Penn State," he said. "But Penn State, and State College in general, is one of the safest environments in this country."

The Clery Act, named for Jeanne Ann Clery, a Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered in her dorm room in April 1986, requires all colleges to annually report crimes such as murder, aggravated assault and robbery, according to SecurityonCampus.org.

When college campuses across the nation announced their annual crime statistics, the data showed eight sexual offenses had occurred at Penn State in 2004, while West Chester University reported only one.

"I thought I was attending a very safe school," West Chester student Amanda Hunter said. "It seemed kind of strange to me that such little crime was happening, but I believed the statistics."

Catherine Bath, executive director of Security on Campus, a national organization devoted to safer campuses, said she believes only half of all schools are reporting the correct figures to the government. "This is not just an issue of schools in big cities," she said.

In the U. S. Department of Justice study, some colleges reported that while working with local police to obtain the off-campus statistics, the police departments were often uncooperative, and some colleges were unable to acquire the accurate information.

"We are fortunate we don't have that problem at Penn State," Kline said. "We share record databases with other local jurisdictions."

Stephen Bell, West Chester spokesman, said the school's incorrect numbers were a result of The Clery Act's confusing requirements.

Bath said she thinks the inaccurate reporting of figures stems from a desire of colleges to improve their image. She said often university police will report a burglary as a theft or not even record the incident at all.

"It's all about looking better to the public," she said. "They need to care more about students getting the truth about what's going on at their campus."