LOS ANGELES >> Officials at University of Southern California and Occidental College say they have underreported the number of campus sexual assaults in recent years that is a potential violation of federal law and could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties.

The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that USC hadn’t reported 13 cases to federal officials for 2010 and 2011, while Occidental acknowledged it failed to include 24 reports during the same time frame.

Colleges are required to report campus crime statistics to the U.S Department of Education under a 1990 law.

Women at USC, Occidental and other colleges have filed complaints with the federal agency, claiming administrators discouraged them from reporting sexual attacks or downplayed the severity of the incidents.