In an update to Nora’s post from December, the Detroit News reports that Eastern Michigan University has finally paid their $357,500 fine levied by the Department of Education for failure to comply with the Clery Act. The University failed to inform the campus community about the rape and murder of a female student by a male student in December 2006. EMU initially appealed the fine, but has now agreed to pay. The Clery Act includes requirements for universities to alert students to safety threats, as well as keep accurate and accessible campus crime stats. The Clery Act is often assumed to be simply another policy that universities must comply with. However, we at SAFER believe the Clery Act can be used as an activist tool, giving students another route to hold their colleges accountable for sexual assault. We’re planning some Summer posts on how students can tell if their school is in compliance, and how to use the Clery Act to improve campus policies and practices. Stay tuned!

The Department of Education has ordered Eastern Michigan State to pay the largest fine ever imposed for violations of the Clery Act. Citing 13 violations of the act, including the egregious failure to notify students that a rapist and a murderer was at large on campus for more than two months last year, Eastern Michigan State has been ordered to pay $357,500 in fines. As this article points out, the administration’s mishandling of that case has already cost it more than $3.8 million. The message is clear: failure to notify students of sexual assaults and other security risks will cost a university serious money. Is your university in compliance with the Clery Act? If not, your leverage as an activist just went up by $357,500.

Sometimes people ask me if I think maybe SAFER is a bit alarmist and colleges aren’t really trying to hide crimes. Now I can show them this.

National
University Fires Officials for Concealing Killing
By NICK BUNKLEY
Published: July 17, 2007
Six months after a student was raped and killed in her dormitory room, Eastern Michigan University said that it had fired three administrators.

Nice to see a school taken to task for covering up a murder. YPSILANTI:EMU cover-up broke the law