Report 2017-032 Recommendation 35 Responses

Report 2017-032: Clery Act Requirements and Crime Reporting: Compliance Continues to Challenge California's Colleges and Universities (Release Date: May 2018)

Recommendation #35 To: Bakersfield College

To ensure it properly informs students and employees, Bakersfield should notify its students and employees and update the U.S. DOE about the corrected Clery Act statistics as soon as possible.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2020

Bakersfield College sent emails in December 2018 and January 2019 notifying students, staff and the US DOE of the discrepancies in the 2019 crime statistics report.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Resolved

The emails that Bakersfield College provided pertain to a previous discrepancy unrelated to the discrepancies noted in the 2019 report. Nevertheless, Bakersfield College was able to demonstrate that its Clery compliance committee is assuming responsibility for producing complete and accurate reports and ensuring their prompt distribution. Accordingly, we conclude that this recommendation has been resolved.


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2019

Bakersfield College corrected its Clery crime statistics to align with U.S. DOE statistics and notified its staff and students on December 14, 2018 (See attached email announcing the chances).

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

Although Bakersfield notified its students, employees, and the U.S. DOE regarding discrepancies that we previously identified between its annual security report and the U.S. DOE statistics, we identified an additional discrepancy between Bakersfield's 2019 annual security report and the U.S. DOE's statistics available as of November 2019. Bakersfield will need to notify its students, employees, and the U.S. DOE of this additional discrepancy.


1-Year Agency Response

The college has taken steps to notify our students and the DOE of our updated crime statistics; however, we are still resolving discrepancies among our 2018 ASR and DOE statistics. We plan to have these discrepancies resolved by December 2019.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

Although Bakersfield eventually made the appropriate notifications for its corrected 2017 statistics, it subsequently identified some inaccuracies in its 2018 statistics. Therefore, Bakersfield will need to notify students, employees, and the U.S. DOE of those corrected statistics after it addresses the discrepancies.


6-Month Agency Response

The College updated the U.S. DOE Clery statistics on Thursday December 13, 2018 and notified its students and employees that changes had been made.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

Bakersfield provided us with the email notification that it sent to its students and employees about the corrected Clery Act statistics, but it did not provide evidence of updating the U.S. DOE.


60-Day Agency Response

The College shall update the U.S. DOE Clery statistics once the portal opens in October 2018 and notify its students and employees within the annual notification upon completion

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending


All Recommendations in 2017-032

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.