MUNCIE, Ind. -- President Clinton's recent White House conference on hate crimes -- especially those on college campuses -- should bring much needed attention to the issue, says a Ball State University researcher.

Recent news reports of hate crimes, which range from church burnings to attacks on minorities on campuses, is part of an alarming spread of such criminal acts across the country, said Bryan Byers, a criminal justice professor and an expert on hate crimes against various ethnic groups.

"When the president gets involved, it makes a public proclamation that the issue of hate crimes is important to the American public," he said. "Hate crimes is something that we've only recently started to measure in this country. It is an issue that is very important to many groups."

Last week's conference brought together hundreds of civil rights, law enforcement, and religious leaders to the White House. Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno met with various groups and individuals, exploring ways to curb intolerance.

Byers was impressed with the conference's review of intolerance on college campuses. The national spotlight recently focused on Indiana University, where college fraternity members competed in a racially-biased scavenger hunt, and the flying of the Confederate Flag during football games at the University of Mississippi.

"Hate crimes can be a problem on any college campus," he said. "The typical incident is reported as harassment or intimidation. Usually, someone calls a person a racially-incentive name or leaves hate mail at an individual's residence by sliding it under the door."

Byers applauded conference officials who urged college leaders -- both administrators and students -- to take a major role in combating hate crimes on university campuses. The conference called for zero tolerance of hate crimes, improving reporting measures of such criminal activities, offering assistance to victims, and starting an early prevention program to curb such incidents.

"We have to remember that hate crimes can occur anywhere and they do happen at college," he said. "We are suddenly bringing together a very diverse group of people. People can bring their prejudices to college and problems occur. For some students, this is the first time they've been introduced to people of another race. It can be a very trying time for some students."

While reports of hate crimes have skyrocketed since the FBI began keeping records in 1991, little data has been collected about violence against minorities on college campuses. A recent requirement by the federal government that all universities and colleges report all crime information to the U.S. Department of Education may shed light on the issue, Byers said.

"Just like the problem nationally, many colleges do not list some acts as a hate crime," he said. "If a state doesn't have a hate crimes law, then local police cannot charge someone with that. Just over half the states have anti-hate crimes legislation, which confuses reporting.

"In fact, the FBI's book on hate crimes statistics is often referred to as the Book of Zeros' because many communities and states have no hate crimes reported while we know that they have happened. It is just how you define the activity."