Students and parents will no longer have to search aimlessly for hard-to-find information on campus crime.

President Bush signed the Students’ Right to Know Act of 1990 late last week, requiring colleges and universities across the nation to make campus crime statistics available to students and parents, said Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C.

The bill, which is now law, requires universities and colleges to make any campus crime information available to any person who asks. The law does not require universities to publish the information in any student handbook, however. Information only needs to be released if requested.

The information must be available to students by Sept. 1, 1992. The reports must include information concerning campus crimes including murder, rape, theft, aggravated assault and burglary.

The law also includes a provision that would permit colleges to disclose the results of campus disciplinary proceedings to victims of violent crimes.

Furthermore, it includes provisions requiring all colleges and universities in federal student aid programs to disclose graduation rates of full-time, degree-seeking students. Also, any college or university that offers athletic scholarships must provide the graduation rate of students who received athletic scholarships.

Lobbyists for the bill maintain it will make students more aware of campus safety and would work to reduce the number of crimes committed on college campuses.

The bill, which was introduced by Sen. Arlen Spector, R-Pa., was a response to the 1986 death of the daughter of Howard and Constance Clery, who was murdered in her Lehigh University residence hall room during her freshman year.

The Clerys subsequently found information about their daughter’s murder hard to find and appealed to Spector for help. Through the efforts of the Clerys and Spector, the bill passed both houses of the U.S. Congress.

Despite Bush’s signature and the approval of Congress, passage “in no way marks the end of campus crime,” said Susan Lamontagne, spokesman for Sen. Spector.