Page 58 - Security Today, January/February 2020

Campus Safety
By Stephen R. Aborn Clery Act’s role in security measure alerts for today’s universities
The Clery Act
Decades worth of surveys have demonstrated that families and students place campus safety and secu- rity at the forefront of the decision-making process when deciding on where to enroll. For example, in a 2018 report, one of the most important factors for parents was a safe environment. For students, this was the second most important factor in the college selection process.
Keeping our nation’s college and university population safe and secure requires the partnership of college administrators, law enforcement and security professionals. Many campuses are ramping up their security to ensure their students, staff and visitors continue to remain safe and to protect their reputation as a secure school.
In April of 1986 Jeanne Clery, a 19-year old Lehigh University col- lege student was brutally raped and murdered in her campus resident hall by Joseph M. Henry. At the murder trial, it was uncovered that the attack on Clery was one of 38 violent crimes recorded at the uni- versity in three years but were never publicly reported. Clery’s parents sued Lehigh University and won.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Cam- pus Crime Statistics Act or Clery Act is a consumer protection law
that helps prospective students and families understand the safety of one academic institution versus another. Signed into law in 1990, the Clery Act is a federal statute which mandates that universities are responsible for making public any crimes that happen on their grounds every year. According to an executive summary of the act in the Federal Register, “the Clery Act requires institutions of higher education to comply with certain campus-safety and security-related requirements as a condition of their participation in Title IV HEA programs (i.e., federal financial assistance programs).”
Compliance is monitored by the Department of Education (DoE) who can impose penalties per each violation. Noncompliance with the Clery Act is very costly for colleges and universities. The cost for a single violation for 2019 is $57,317. In addition to fines and punitive damages, institutions can lose their financial aid funding and incur significant damage to the institution’s reputation.
The Clery Act is about crime reporting and campus security authorities (CSAs) are a critical part of the process. CSAs, which includes campus security professionals, provide vital support and create better outcomes across campuses. Often, CSAs are the front- line safety and security resource for both students and faculty.
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