A victim advocacy group is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate whether Virginia Tech complied with a federal law requiring prompt warnings to students when they are in danger.

The Pennsylvania-based Security on Campus organization filed a complaint against Virginia Tech this morning. The group contends that the university waited too long to notify students and faculty members after two people were found shot to death in a dormitory early on the morning of April 16.

University officials sent an e-mail about the shooting two hours after police responded. Sixteen minutes after that alert went out, gunman Seung-Hui Cho had begun a second attack in Norris Hall, where he murdered another 30 people before committing suicide.

"The two hour delay in issuing a warning in this case deprived campus community members of potentially life-saving information that they could have used to protect themselves and prevent any further shootings," according to the complaint filed today. "Instead campus community members went about their usual routines unaware that there was a significant threat in their midst and unable to make informed decisions."

Gerald Massengill, chairman of an review panel examining the university's response to the shooting, said the panel's report will address questions about whether Virginia Tech complied with the federal Clery Act.

Massengill, a retired superintendent of the Virginia State Police, did not comment about the complaint filed today because he had not seen the document.

The eight-member review panel, appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, is meeting in Charlottesville today to review a draft of the report they hope to release on Friday.

Massengill said the members' discussions today will determine whether the full 300-page document is ready by the end of the week.

Massengill said members of Kaine's staff are arranging briefings on the report for families who lost relatives in the shooting attack.

The complaint filed today also criticized Tech's initial e-mail as vague because it announced that a "shooting incident" had occurred but it did not indicate that two people were dead. The original e-mail also failed to notify students and faculty that the shooter had not been apprehended.

"A U.S. Department of Education investigation, as we have called for, is the only way to determine conclusively why a warning was delayed for two hours and to effect changes in warnings on campus," said S. Daniel Carter, senior vice president for Security on Campus. "The Clery Act is a federal law and the Education Department, not any other arm of government, has the final say on whether or not the law was complied with."

Security on Campus was formed by Connie and Howard Clery, whose daughter Jeanne was raped and murdered in her college dorm in 1986. The organization successfully pushed for a federal law, known as the Clery Act, that requires colleges to report campus crime and to strengthen security measures. The group also files complaints when it believes universities violate that law.

The U.S. Department of Education has the power to fine colleges for such violations and in severe cases may also restrict, suspend or cancel a university's eligibility to participate in federal student financial aid programs. Earlier this year, Security on Campus filed a complaint against Eastern Michigan University for not reporting the rape and murder of a student in December.

Federal education investigators concluded that the university had been underreporting and misreporting crime statistics for three years. Three top officials at the university lost their jobs.