By Courtney Walsh, Assistan News Editor
Next month, Hofstra Public Safety seeks to better define alert guidelines in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act).
The Clery Act is named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered by a fellow Leigh student in 1986. Signed in 1990, the Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses. It also requires the colleges to collect, report and disseminate crime data to everyone on campus and to the Department of Education annually.
The Clery Act dictates that institutions disclose crime statistics based on four factors: where the crime occurred, the type of crime, to whom the crime was reported, and when the crime was reported. Colleges and Universities must disclose reported crime, meaning a crime, which is brought to the attention of a campus security authority or local police by a victim witness, other third party or even the offender. The institution is also required to disclose crime reports regardless of whether any of the individuals involved in either the crime itself or in the reporting of the crime, are associated with the institution. Institutions must disclose three general categories of crime statistics: types of offenses, hate crimes, and arrests/referrals for disciplinary action.
The compliance of the university is monitored by the United States Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties up to $27,500 per violation, and can suspend institutions form participating in federal student financial aid programs.