A $1-Million Fine for Violating the Clery Act? Expensive, but Not Unprecedented

A fine of nearly $1-million imposed by the U.S. Department of Education against the University of Montana could be the second-largest penalty ever assessed for campus-safety violations under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, known as the Clery Act.

Montana officials say they do not dispute the department’s findings that the university failed to comply with Clery Act regulations that require universities to accurately report campus-crime data. The violations include the failure to properly report at least seven forcible sexual offenses from 2012 to 2015.

“While UM anticipated fines, we were surprised by the magnitude given UM’s cooperation in reviewing and updating the statistics,” said the university’s director of communications, Paula Short, in a statement.

The university plans to appeal the $966,614 in penalties imposed by the department, which represent an uncommonly hefty fine. Between 2010 and 2017, the department imposed 40 fines on colleges for violations of the Clery Act’s campus-safety and drug-free-campus regulations. All together, the department has assessed just over $5 million in fines against colleges, with a nearly $2.4-million fine (the largest on record) levied against Pennsylvania State University in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child-abuse scandal. The median fine over the course those seven fiscal years was $47,250.

“This is a reporting issue, not a response issue,” Short’s statement continues. “The university has made marked progress in its commitment to creating a safe campus environment; some of our efforts have been described as a blueprint for other institutions. We remain committed to our students, and their safety as our top priority.”

Colleges don’t always end up paying their full penalties. They have a variety of means to reverse or reduce the fines imposed on them by the government. Twelve institutions reached settlement agreements with the department related to their Clery fines, including Oregon State and Liberty Universities. Other institutions, such as Mitsu Sato Hair Academy and Washington State University, elected to appeal the department’s findings. An analysis by Inside Higher Ed in 2014 found that fines imposed on colleges were reduced by more than 25 percent, on average, through appeals or settlements.

According to S. Daniel Carter, a consultant specializing in campus security, colleges’ Clery Act fines were originally limited to a maximum penalty of $25,000 per violation. After the latest round of adjustments for inflation, fines for each Clery Act violation are now $55,907. Such fines are typically imposed in full when a college misreports or omits a violent offense, like sexual assault. Likewise, Carter said the Montana case is an indicator of an updated department policy that limits reviews of a university’s Clery policy to five years. In the past, the Education Department had been criticized for prolonged investigations, stretching a decade or more in some cases.

“Expect fine actions faster and larger. That’s the main takeaway,” Carter said of the Montana fine and what it indicated about future department oversight.

While the Trump-era Department of Education has reduced its sanctioning portfolio in areas like the regulation of for-profit colleges, it does not appear to have significantly reduced its regulatory brief when it comes to campus safety. In the first eight months of 2017, the department imposed five fines against colleges for violations related to campus-safety and drug-free-campus rules, compared with seven fines imposed during the same period of the Obama administration’s last year.

This is the second time in recent years that the federal government has reviewed Montana’s policies relating to campus safety and sexual violence. In 2013 the Education Department and the Department of Justice chided Montana for inadequate grievance procedures, and for not adequately dealing with at least two allegations of retaliation reported by victims of sexual assault.

More Than $5 Million in Clery Fines Have Been Assessed Against Colleges

The Education Department Has Sanctioned Colleges for a Variety of Problems

Dan Bauman is a reporter who investigates and writes about all things data in higher education. Tweet him at @danbauman77 or email him at dan.bauman@chronicle.com.

Clarification (10/3/2018, 5:17 p.m.): This article originally stated that the University of Montana’s violations included “the failure to report at least seven forcible sexual offenses from 2012 to 2015.” The article has been updated to reflect that the university did report most of the incidents, but it failed to do so according to department guidelines.