The Clery Act and Employee Responsibility in Reporting Student Crime

The federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires colleges and universities to report statistics on campus crime. Jeanne Clery was a freshman at Lehigh University who was assaulted and murdered while asleep in her residence hall. Clery's parents led a crusade to enact the law after they learned that students had not been told about 38 violent crimes that had occurred on the Lehigh campus in the three years preceding her murder. The United States Department of Education issued new regulations in Summer 2000 implementing the Clery Act, and clarifying the crime statistic reporting requirements. The regulations specify sanctions for non-compliance, including fines.

Colby has an obligation to collect crime statistics from those College employees with "significant responsibility for student and campus activities." The regulations explain that a faculty member serving as an advisor to students or to a student group qualifies as a person from whom the College must collect crime statistics. Therefore, all faculty advisors are asked to report to the Dean of Students Office the occurrence of the following crimes on campus, or involving a Colby student off campus: murder or manslaughter, forcible or non-forcible sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, any hate crime, crimes involving bodily injury and arrests for liquor law violations, drug law violations, or illegal weapons possession.

Statistics reported by the College will not identify the victim. The reporting requirement exists when you receive a report from a victim, or from any other person who gives you reasonable cause to believe that a criminal offense has occurred.

Please contact the Office of Personnel Services or the Director of Security if you have questions regarding this reporting obligation.

The most recent report of crime statistics can be found at: http://www.colby.edu/personnel/security/stats.html