The recent Penn State scandal, which includes reports of alleged sexual assault in 2002 by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, may violate the Jeanne Clery Act because there is evidence suggesting that administrators knew about the allegations but failed to report them.
The Clery Act is a federal law that requires all college campus police departments to record and make public every crime reported on campus properties and non-campus properties associated with the university such as greek houses. Among crimes covered under the Clery Act are murder, sexual assault and robbery.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, abbreviated to Jeanne Clery Act or the Clery act, is part of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The law applies to all colleges and universities that are part of federal student aid programs. If an institution fails to comply, it can be fined up to $27,500 by the U.S Department of Education, which enforces the rule.
The problem for Penn State is that under the Clery act, "reported" crimes are not limited to those in which police become involved. According to Frank LoMonte's article "Why Penn State's Problems May Include a Clery Act Reporting Violation" from the Student Press Law Center, any crime reported to a campus security authority — defined as "any person or institution mentioned in the ‘campus security statement' that students can go to for help" — is covered under Clery.
In Penn State's situation, coaches like Joe Paterno, and possibly the university's Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz, as well as Tim Curley, the athletic director at the time, were aware of the alleged sexual assault, which means, according to the Clery Act, the incident had to be reported.
Like every other college or university campus, DePauw is required to disclose information the Clery Act mandates.
In an email sent to the entire campus community on Sept. 30, Angela Nally, director of Public Safety, said, "[information is] gathered from crimes reported to the Public Safety Office, Student Life, other campus officials with significant student advising responsibility and local law enforcement agencies."
The email also said, "DePauw University maintains a collaborative relationship with local law enforcement agencies to monitor and record criminal activity in which students may engage off campus and within the Greencastle community. Pastoral and professional mental health counselors are encouraged to refer persons they are counseling to report crimes on a voluntary confidential basis for inclusion in the annual crime statistics."
Incidents reported via the "Silent Witness" program found on Public Safety's Web page are also reported.
Since public safety offices are responsible for reporting campus crimes, Clery statistics only include crimes that have been reported to public safety offices in one way or another. On DePauw's campus, Nally is in charge of collecting the data. How she collects the data depends on the crime.
"For instances of sexual assault, those in primary first responder positions, such as SASA, Counselors, Wellness Center staff, Women's Center staff and Dean of Students office staff, are instructed to complete a confidential report form if they work with someone that has experienced sexual assault but does not want to report it to the police," Nally said. "For other crimes, I send out a request for information/statistics to all faculty and staff when I am working on the report."
Everything that is reported is included in DePauw's annual report.
The Office of Public Safety's website includes a page with the statistics for the past three years.
"Clery requires that we not only report the number of instances in a calendar year, but also by location, so there are four categories for each year," Nally said, clarifying how the table works. "‘On Campus' means in a building or on the grounds owned by the university. The second category is in a residential facility, which is a subset of the first category. ‘Non-campus' means property that is not owned by the university, but is considered part of the campus. [An] example would be greek units. Finally, public property is streets, sidewalks along streets, parking lots, etc."
DePauw's annual report includes more than just the crimes statistics. Fire safety disclosures, crime prevention, safety tips and emergency procedures are also included. Emergency procedures for harassment, threats and violence on campus, pandemic emergencies (H1N1), building evacuation, explosions, fire, hazardous material spill/release, first aid, shelter in place, bomb threats, medical emergency, tornado, earthquake and utility failure are all included.
The university publishes and distributes this report or the notice of the existence of this report on a yearly basis to faculty, staff and students, as well as to prospective students and employees.
DePauw's Public Safety website also includes activity logs for both the previous and current years.