Clery Act Overview

The following is a summary of the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act and University obligations. A more detailed overview of the Clery Act can be found in the Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting 2016 or The Clery Center.

The Clery Act requires colleges and universities to:

1. Publish an Annual Security Report (ASR) by October 1, documenting three calendar years of select campus crime statistics, security policies and procedures, and information on the basic rights guaranteed victims of sexual assault. Schools must notify all community members that the ASR has been published and make copies available.

2. To maintain a daily crime log. Institutions with a police or security department are required to maintain a public crime log documenting the “nature, date, time, and general location of each crime” and its disposition, if known.

3. Disclose crime statistics for incidents that occur on campus, in unobstructed public areas immediately adjacent to or running through the campus and at certain non-campus facilities including Greek housing and remote classrooms. The statistics must be gathered from campus police or security, local law enforcement and other school officials who have “significant responsibility for student and campus activities.”

​4. Issue timely warnings – crime alerts or crime notifications about Clery Act crimes that may pose a serious or ongoing threat to students and employees.  Institutions must provide timely warnings in a manner likely to reach all members of the campus community. The purpose of a timely warning – crime alert is to notify the campus community of the incident and to provide information that may enable community members to better protect themselves from similar incidents.

5. Devise an emergency response, notification and testing policy.

Institutions must issue an “Emergency Notification” for any incident that may be considered an immediate and ongoing threat.  Examples of a scenario requiring an emergency notification would include a tornado approaching, an active shooter, fire, or health epidemic. 

6. Compile and report fire data to the federal government and publish an annual fire safety report.

Institutions must include all fire statistics for each of our On-Campus student housing facilities. 

7. Enact policies and procedures to handle reports of missing students.

This requirement is intended to minimize delays and confusion during the initial stages of a missing student investigation. The University provides every student living in University housing the opportunity and means to identify an individual to be contacted in an emergency, including whenever the University determines that a student is missing.

8.  Prevention Programming.

The VAWA amendments require prevention programs that aim to stop sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking before they occur. These programs promote positive and healthy behaviors that foster healthy, mutually-respectful relationships and sexuality, encourage safe bystander intervention tactics, and seek to change behavior and social norms in healthy and safe directions.