LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Two California colleges have disclosed they underreported the number of sexual assault cases on their campuses in recent years, documents indicate.
The University of Southern California and Occidental College released the information amid federal investigations, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
Underreporting the incidents is a potential violation of a federal law, the Clery Act.
The disclosures could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties, the Times said.
USC officials said they had not reported 13 accounts of sexual assaults for 2010 and 2011. The number of cases for those two years was 39.
Occidental did not report 24 cases, bringing the total to 26.
Occidental is under investigation for violations of the Clery Act and USC students have filed a complaint accusing their school of violations.
Both schools are under investigation for possible violations of Title IX, an anti-discrimination law that requires colleges to fairly investigate sexual assaults.
Representatives from both schools said they mistakenly did not report cases that were reported anonymously, leading to the errors.
Federal officials could not be reached for comment due to the partial government shutdown, the Times reported.
