Washington

A majority of postsecondary institutions that did not complete a key federal survey required by law were little-known beauty schools, but the list of colleges that failed to submit the data also includes well-known campuses like Alfred, Gonzaga, and Kentucky State Universities, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Washington at Seattle.

About 470 institutions did not complete at least one part of the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System survey for the 2002-3 academic year. Known commonly as Ipeds, the survey -- which comprises about 10 reports -- produces the only central national database of enrollment statistics, institutional revenue and expenditures, tuition, faculty-salary averages, and other key indicators. The data are heavily used by federal and state policy makers on higher education.

In an effort to push more institutions to provide complete information, Congress in 1992 tied completion of the survey to their eligibility for federal student aid. But for much of the last decade, the Education Department largely turned a blind eye to institutions that failed to submit the data.

Until this year. With the Bush administration's focus on accountability, department officials felt that this was the time to go after colleges that had been lax in compliance. Last month, the department sent letters to 80 institutions, fining them $10,000 or more and warning that they could lose eligibility for federal student financial aid if they did not submit complete data for 2002-3 (The Chronicle, July 25).

While the Education Department refused to release a list of the 80 institutions, the agency did provide The Chronicle with the names of the 470 institutions that did not fully complete the survey. Some 170 institutions, more than one-third of those on the list, are higher-education institutions and include community colleges, four-year institutions, and for-profit providers. The remainder are primarily beauty and medical-technician schools.

One of the largest institutions on the list is the University of Washington at Seattle. Phil Hoffman, whose office is responsible for completing the survey, said Tuesday that the university had failed to submit data for one survey -- employees by assigned positions -- that was added to Ipeds in 2001-2 (when Washington also did not submit the data).

"Our systems needed to be reprogrammed to complete that," said Mr. Hoffman, the university's director of institutional studies, "and given the press of all the other things we needed to do, we just didn't get around to doing it in a timely fashion."

The Education Department fined the university $15,000, which it has appealed. The final survey was submitted with the appeal, Mr. Hoffman said. "We were in the process of completing the survey," he said. "It just didn't happen in their time frame."

At Mount Holyoke, David LaChance, a spokesman for the college, called the failure to submit the survey "an oversight." Mount Holyoke was also one of the institutions that was fined, and it also has appealed, Mr. LaChance said.

"We are especially dismayed about this because, to date, we have had a flawless history," he added. "We take this very seriously."

More than half of the 80 institutions that received fine notices have filed appeals with the Education Department, according to a higher-education lobbyist who was at a meeting with department officials last week at which the issue was discussed. Those officials said at the meeting that the 80 institutions had been singled out based on several factors, including how much federal aid they received.

"They wanted to go after those schools that get the most federal dollars," the higher-education official said.