Staff from The University of Texas-Pan American and other area higher education institutions had an opportunity to learn more about compliance with federal regulations regarding the monitoring and disclosure of crime statistics on campus during a training session conducted June 29 at UTPA.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act – called 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. Compliance is monitored by the United States Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties, up to $27,500 per violation, against institutions for each infraction and can suspend their participation in federal student financial aid programs.

The training, arranged by the UTPA Police Department, Counseling Services, Department of Environmental Health and Safety and the Dean of Students, was conducted by Margolis, Healy & Associates, LLC, a well-known professional services firm specializing in higher education and K-12 safety and security.

“There are several possible consequences with not complying with the law. Aside from the penalties, the most significant consequence is that you lose the faith of your campus community, “said Steven Healy, managing partner of Margolis, Healy & Associates, who led the daylong session. Healy is former chief of police at Princeton University and past president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.

The act is named in memory of 19-year-old freshman Jeanne Ann Clery, who was raped and murdered in April 1986 while asleep in her residence hall room at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Her parents discovered that students there hadn’t been made aware of 38 violent crimes on the campus in the three years before her murder. They and other supporters persuaded Congress to enact the law in 1990 requiring campus crime statistics disclosure.

“Her family believed that if the university had provided more accurate information about the nature of safety and security on campus, they may not have chosen to send their daughter there or she would have taken additional precautions to protect herself,” Healy said. Continued...