Clery Act Review FAQs

The Jeanne Clery Act is a consumer protection law that aims to provide transparency around campus crime policy and statistics. Some of the requirements around the Clery Act encompass Annual Security Reporting, proper classification of Clery crimes, establishment of a Clery geography map, the issuance of timely warnings and emergency notifications, and providing resources to victims of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) crimes.

Liberty University prioritizes the safety and security of our students without exception. This is shown in the most recent statistics from our 2023 Annual Security Report.

No campus or community is incident free. We are proud of Liberty’s safety record and will always be focused on keeping students and faculty safe. Many of our faculty and staff send their kids to Liberty because we know firsthand just how safely they can grow to be Champions for Christ here.

Typically, the Department will officially announce to the institution that they will be formally conducting an investigation related to the Clery Act. A review could be generated due to media reports, reports or requests made to the Department, or part of a routine, scheduled review. The Department will issue either a full-scale audit or specific tailored review of all records during a stated review period and will generate document requests accordingly. This can be done in direct coordination with the Department, or an institution can choose to contract with an outside consultant/firm to assist with the document production, review, and communication to the Department.

An institution has had an opportunity to respond to a preliminary report with tentative findings by the Department before the program review is complete. Then, the Department may provide a Final Program Review Determination letter and fine determination, or the Department may pursue a Settlement Agreement, depending on the specifics. The Department has the opportunity to choose the pathway they desire for an institution under a program review. Both options will have a fine amount presented.

The Department issued an official notice of the Clery Act program review on February 18, 2022. Since that time, the university has been working in collaboration with the Department to provide access to requested documents. On May 1, 2023, the Department issued Liberty with a preliminary report of the findings and the university replied promptly to the preliminary document by the Department’s stated deadline of June 30, 2023. The university has had a series of meetings with the Department as well as back and forth requests for additional information, some of which were provided multiple times to the Department.

The complete timeline is as follows:

• February 18, 2022 – U.S. Department of Education officially launches program review at Liberty University.
• May 1, 2023 – Liberty receives preliminary Program Review Report (PRR) from the U.S. Department of Education with a required response date of June 30, 2023.
• June 30, 2023 – Liberty University responds to the U.S. Department of Education PRR.
• August 16, 2023 – Liberty University receives initial settlement information from the Department with a settlement proposal for an initial fine of $37.5 million, warning that absent a settlement the Department would pursue a fine likely twice that amount.
• August 18, 2023 – Liberty University responds to settlement offer indicating 1) interest in continuing negotiations, 2) discussing the terms of a post-monitoring agreement and, 3) requiring ED to provide a detailed calculation on how they reached the $37.5 million figure.
• August 25, 2023 – The Department responds to Liberty’s August 18 communication explaining the reasoning behind the $37.5 million figure and further information on the PRR. The Department offers to meet with Liberty.
• August 31, 2023 – Liberty responds to the Department’s August 25 communication accepting the Department’s offer to meet with them and requested an in-person meeting during the month of September. The Department declined their initial offer to meet with Liberty and indicated that this was “unnecessary” after suggesting it to Liberty.
• September 8, 2023 – The Department reconsidered the request to meet and accepted a phone call with Liberty. The Department noted in writing that they had a deadline of September 30 to complete the Clery review.
• September 21, 2023 – Liberty issued a counteroffer to the $37.5 million figure with a detailed calculation based on historical precedent with Clery reviews from similarly situated institutions.
• September 25, 2023 – Liberty and ED met via phone to discuss the September 21 response and calculation.
• October – November 2023 – ED requests additional data that includes some repeated information that was submitted during the June 2023 submission.
• November 7, 2023 – ED issues a letter to Liberty indicating they believed that their fine proposal was “fair and measured” and “within their statutory authority.” The Department indicated that they are continue to work on the Final Program Review Determination (FPRD) letter and that it will likely be issued in the “next several weeks.”
• November 20, 2023 – ED issues a counteroffer to Liberty in the amount of $29,320,176 with no defined calculation.
• November 29, 2023 – Liberty responds to the Department reiterating again the need for a defined calculation based on precedent.
• December 5, 2023 – ED requests a phone call with the Clery Group (ED) and Liberty to discuss generally the fine calculation as well as some of the discrepancies between the Department’s findings.
• December 8, 2023 – ED and Liberty met via phone to discuss some of the details behind the Department’s fine calculation and later that day, ED requested another call the following week to discuss one particular finding’s fine calculation more in detail.
• December 12, 2023 – ED and Liberty met via phone to discuss one particular finding’s fine calculation. The Department noted that the Department or “agency” was particularly “anxious” in seeing some movement from Liberty otherwise they would issue the FPRD. Additionally, this was the first indication that the Department noted that they would be issuing the FPRD and the Fine Notice at the same time. This has never been done historically, but the Department noted that this is likely how they will continue to issue FPRDs in the future.
• December 14, 2023 – Liberty issues another letter to the Department noting that they will review the original counteroffer to determine if anything needed to be updated based on historical precedent from similarly situated institutions and that they requested a timeframe of no later than January 15, 2024, due to the holidays.
• December 21, 2023 – ED issued a response to the December 14 letter that Liberty “mischaracterized” the Department’s intentions to correct factual errors in the final report. Additionally, ED noted that the timeframe that Liberty requested will not delay ED’s process in issuing an FPRD.
• January 5, 2024 – Liberty issues another counteroffer to the Department based on a precise calculation using established precedent.
• January 8, 2024 – Liberty issues a formal FOIA request through the FOIA Service Portal for “detailed information about the imposition of fines by the U.S. Department of Education in all Clery Act program reviews or other investigations/reviews under the Clery Act from January 1, 2020, to present. In particular, please provide information about any Final Program Review Determinations, notices of fines, negotiated settlements, or other available information about fine actions with post-secondary institutions that reflect the Department’s imposition of the maximum fine (or a fraction thereof), imposed on a per year (or less) basis, for all violations/incidents within the review period.”
• January 12, 2024 – ED initiates call with outside counsel to discuss a counteroffer. The Department counters at $23 million, which the Department said was “always their floor.” The Department mentioned that if Liberty is unable to agree to the counteroffer, the fine notice is currently set to be issued at $64 million. This was one of the first times that the Department also provided a calculation that would total $64,515,600, claiming it’s methodology was not unprecedented.
• January 16, 2024 – ED provides four of the recent Clery Act Program Reviews per Liberty’s FOIA request issued on January 8, 2024. The documents did not in any way show new precedent or a new calculation methodology as had been described to us that we would see.
• January 18, 2024 – Liberty escalates review of Clery Act Program Review and recent fine to General Counsel at the Division of Postsecondary Education. The university requested a call to discuss how to move forward with proposed exorbitant fine and the recent documents received on January 16, 2024 that were contradictory to what the university had been told in relation to Clery fines and methodology used.
• January 22, 2024 – Liberty receives a response from General Counsel, indicating that the “Department has made its determinations on the issues” and would be issuing a Final Program Review Determination in the near future. Liberty also received a subsequent email from the Department that Senior Advisor to Federal Student Aid Chief Operating Officer, would be willing to meet with the university regarding the Clery Act Program Review.
• January 26, 2024 – Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) issues letter demanding a briefing over ED’s Targeting of Religious Institutions.
• January 26, 2024 – Liberty and the Department meet to discuss the Clery Act Program Review negotiations. Liberty reaches tentative settlement with the Department, pending required approval by the Liberty University Board of Trustees and additional settlement terms.
• February 16, 2024 – Liberty University Board of Trustees votes to authorize President Costin to accept the terms negotiated in the Settlement Agreement.

The review period determined by the U.S. Department of Education for Liberty University spanned 2016-2022.

Liberty University immediately cooperated with the Department to provide requested documents and complied with all stated deadlines throughout the process. Additionally, Liberty University engaged a law firm, Cozen O’Connor and Healy+, to assist in administering with document production, a full-scale audit, and complying with all requested items.

In early 2021, to further efforts to create a model Clery program, Liberty University engaged Healy+, a national consulting practice with vast Clery Act expertise. Healy+ worked with Liberty University to perform an extensive data audit and assessment of past and current campus security functions at the university.

Liberty University has worked in collaboration with Healy+ staff to make significant advancements in Clery Act compliance related to policies and procedures, training of Campus Security Authorities and executive leadership; committee formation; creation of a compliant Clery Geography map; implementation of a timely warning decision matrix; and an overhaul to the Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports. Liberty remains committed to continuing to work through the Program Improvement Plan with Healy+ to improve efforts around Clery Act compliance.

Cozen O’Connor has been a leader in the Clery Act compliance space in conjunction with Healy+, which was acquired by Cozen O’Connor in 2017. Both companies have joined together to assist higher education institutions with Clery Act compliance reviews.

The university has made many advancements in Clery Act compliance, which include but are not limited to the overhaul of the Office of Equity and Compliance to provide vast financial resources, the hiring of additional qualified personnel, a renewed focus on training, prevention, and awareness; and many programmatic improvements. A listing of these advancements can be seen here: https://www.liberty.edu/title-ix/wp-content/uploads/sites/126/Liberty-University-Advancements.pdf

The Office of Equity and Compliance has created a comprehensive campaign to provide a safe reporting environment, a wide array of supportive measures and resources, and a neutral process for both the complainant and the respondent

The OEC has undertaken a university-wide initiative to increase awareness and access to Title IX resources and created mandatory training courses that span Liberty students, staff, and faculty that have reporting obligations under Title IX and/or Clery. These training courses have included over 20,000 staff and students with over 45,000 hours of training. The OEC has also implemented intentional touch points through a specific social media account for the OEC (@libertyoec) that focus on prevention and awareness around Title IX topics.

A majority of the U.S. Department of Education’s report allegations involve clerical overreporting and misclassification of incidents. 70% of the alleged violations were related to mistakes in totaling alcohol, drug and illegal weapons possession arrests and student disciplinary referrals that were improperly classified, most often due to overreporting. The remaining 29% were comprised of mis-totaled reports of alleged primary, sex, VAWA (dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking crimes), and hate crimes, again with more overreports than underreports except in the undercounted categories of burglary and stalking. Beyond inadequate collection systems for error-free statistics, the Department found several timely warnings and campus alerts that were not sent as required, deficient administrative resources for compliance, inadequate training, errors in maintaining the Daily Crime Log, and failure to timely update Clery Geography maps as campus functions moved, which are all standard Clery compliance items that required improvement.

Liberty University is committed to a safe and secure environment for every member of our community.  We have made a number of enhancements to campus security and safety including investing over $10 million dollars in campus infrastructure, security assets and safety equipment. This includes a widescale camera project across the institution that can assist with detection, as needed.

Additionally, the university implemented the Champion Safe mobile app that has a mobile blue light, emergency contacts, friend walk, and more. This app also allows for a guest function that is available for family members and members of the LU community. Recent articles published on these topics can be seen below.

https://www.liberty.edu/news/2023/09/06/safe-supportive-neutral-libertys-office-of-equity-and-compliance-stands-ready-to-serve/

https://www.liberty.edu/news/2023/04/05/freedom-tower-turns-teal-for-sexual-assault-awareness-month-lu-fosters-student-awareness/

https://www.liberty.edu/news/2022/08/16/liberty-university-enhances-campus-safety-with-emergency-blue-lights/

https://www.liberty.edu/champion/2022/08/13-blue-light-boxes-are-now-active-across-liberty-university-campus/

https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2023/05/08/liberty-university-launches-champion-safe-app-for-campus-safety/

Liberty hosts freshman orientation for incoming students and parents, detailing the resources, training, and personnel dedicated to making our campus safe and secure. Throughout the year, the Office of Equity and Compliance hosts regular training sessions and townhalls that are open to all incoming and current students.

A comprehensive list of all of OEC training sessions can be found on pages 28-30 of the most recent Annual Security Report.

Additionally, the OEC hosts specific focus months that highlight various aspects of the Title IX process. All events and focus months can be found here: https://www.liberty.edu/title-ix/awareness-resources/.

The most recent Annual Security Report was published by the federal deadline of October 1. You can view a copy here: https://www.liberty.edu/title-ix/wp-content/uploads/sites/126/2774043-Annual-Security-Report-2023_v11.pdf.

Over the past two years, the university has worked with external consultants, Cozen O’Connor and Healy+, to strengthen its Clery Act compliance program. In 2023, our external consultants conducted a comprehensive file review and data audit of the university’s crime statistics disclosures for calendar years 2016 through 2022 to ensure that information shared with our community was accurate and complete. Through this file review/data audit, the university identified necessary corrections to its crime statistics disclosures. The university has shared these corrections with the U.S. Department of Education’s Clery Compliance Group and included the restated crime statistics for calendar years 2018 through 2022 on pages 33-38 of the 2023 Annual Security Report. The file review/data audit identified instances of underreporting of crime statistics, overreporting of crime statistics, and misapplication of Clery Act geography. The discrepancies in the crime statistics primarily related to undercounting reports of burglary and stalking and overcounting reports of referrals for disciplinary action for liquor law violations based on a misapplication of definitions. Additional discrepancies arose from gaps in policy, process, recordkeeping systems, coordination, and/or training, which the university has revised and strengthened to ensure the accuracy of future crime statistics disclosures and meet its requirement to share timely, complete, and accurate information with all members of the university community.

No. Liberty University is committed to creating a culture that encourages students to share their experiences with the OEC without fear of disciplinary action from the university for Liberty Way violations related to their case – this is called amnesty. The amnesty policy applies to complainants, respondents, witnesses, and all those involved in our process. We want everyone to be able to share their experience without fear.

Under narrow circumstances Liberty may pursue disciplinary action for the alleged violation of Liberty policies in instances where any other individual is physically harmed by the connected conduct constituting a violation of the Liberty policies, where the connected conduct constitutes a felony crime or Prohibited Conduct, where an employee who engaged connected conduct that is a violation of Liberty policy holds a leadership role on campus (including a leadership role over students or employees), or where an employee engaged in connected conduct that is a violation of Liberty policy with a student.

The university has made a concerted effort to educate the campus community about our amnesty policy. A comprehensive list of training sessions dedicated to the topic of amnesty can be found in the 2023 Annual Security Report on pages 28-30 and on the OEC website under “Amnesty”.

Liberty will be spending this money on new projects related to campus security and safety as well as improvements within the Office of Equity and Compliance (OEC). Liberty likely will be seeking feedback from students and student groups on areas for consideration that would assist us in the goal of continuing to keep safety and security at the forefront.