Clery and Compliance Information
Clery Act Overview
The Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act (Clery Act) is the landmark federal law that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses to assist the public in making decisions which affect their personal safety.
The Act is named in memory of 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Ann Clery, who was raped and murdered while in her residence hall room on April 5, 1986. Jeanne’s parents discovered that students had not been told about 38 violent crimes on the Lehigh campus in the three years before her murder. They joined with other campus crime victims and persuaded Congress to enact this law, which was originally known as the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990.
The law was amended in 1992 to add a requirement that schools afford the victims of campus sexual assault certain basic rights and was amended again in 1998 to expand the reporting requirements. The 1998 amendments also formally named the law in memory of Jeanne Clery to The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics.
In March 2013 the SaVE Act was signed into law updating the Clery Act once again. This new addition added Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Stalking and Title IX Guidelines to the Clery Act.
In December 2024, the Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA) was signed into law. As a result, the Clery Act was amended to add a requirement to gather and disclose incidents of hazing occurring within Clery Geography. Further, the name of the Clery Act was also changed to Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act.
Because the law is tied to participation in federal student financial aid programs, it applies to most institutions of higher education both public and private. It is enforced by the U.S. Department of Education. The Clery Act is a consumer protection law that aims to provide transparency around campus crime, policies and statistics.
Clery Act Requirements
Under the Clery Act, the college must:
- Identify Campus Security Authorities (CSAs) and collect information from the CSAs about crimes that have been reported to them.
- Publish and distribute an Annual Security Report (ASR) by October 1st of each year. The report must be made available to all current and prospective students and employees. The ASR contains crime statistics for the three previous calendar years. It also includes security policies and procedures, plus information on rights and options for survivors of sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking.
- Create, maintain, and make available a daily crime log documenting the nature, date and general location of each crime occurring within Clery geography.
- Submit Clery crime and fire statistics to the Department of Education annually.
- Issue timely warnings about Clery Act crimes which pose a serious or continuing threat to students and employees.
- Initiate notification procedures for any significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on the campus that involves an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees.
- Disclose fire safety policies and procedures related to on-campus housing and statistics for fires that occur in those facilities and maintain a fire log.
- Have missing student notification policies and procedures in place for students who reside in on-campus housing; and
- Provide programs to prevent dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking and adopt institutional policies for handling such alleged offenses in accordance with the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) requirements.
- Disclose policies and procedures regarding the use, sale, or possession of drugs and alcohol, as well as descriptions of any drug or alcohol abuse education program.
- Devise emergency response and notification policies and procedures and test them.
You can read the full text of the Clery Act at the Federal Register here.
Enforcement of Clery Act
The United States Department of Education is charged with enforcing the Clery Act and may assess civil penalties against institutions of higher education or may suspend them from participating in federal student financial aid programs. Complaints of violations should be filed with Department of Education regional offices. Fines are significant and are anticipated to increase annually. See 34 CFR 668.84(a)(1) for the current fine amount per violation.
Clery Compliance Committee
Middlebury College has established a Clery Compliance Committee charged with overseeing compliance efforts throughout the institution. This multi-disciplinary team meets on at least a quarterly basis and includes representation from the following departments:
- Public Safety
- Community Standards
- Athletics
- Civil Rights and Title IX
- Language School Administration
- MIIS Administration
- Bread Loaf Administration
- Student Engagement
- Residential Life
- Academic Affairs
- International Programs & Off-Campus Study
- Enterprise Risk Management
- Human Resources
- Student Financial Services
Additional Resources on Clery Requirements
- Crime and Fire Logs
- Annual Security and Fire Safety Report
- Campus Security Authorities
- Campus Security Authority Training
- Campus Security Authority Incident Report Form
- Missing Persons
- Clery Trip Form
- Timely Warnings and Crime Alerts
- Drug Free Schools and Communities Act Notice
- Campus Sex Crime Prevention Act