In light of recent events on campus, N.C. State employees and students are encouraged to uphold their responsibilities if they are aware of a crime on campus. University employees are required to report any information about sexual assaults through Clery Act reporting.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, better known as the Clery Act, is a federal statute enacted in 1990 that requires universities to disclose certain safety information and crime statistics. It is named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old college student who was raped and murdered by a fellow student at Lehigh University in 1986.
The Clery Act requires the university to publish an annual security report containing crime statistics for the previous three years as well as a public crime log, which details the past two months’ worth of reported crime information. In mid-April 2011, the Act was updated by the federal Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, endorsed by Security on Campus, Inc., a national non-profit organization.
According to a SOC press release, the Campus SaVE Act updates the Clery Act by providing “a better framework for the sexual assault education and victims’ rights currently offered by colleges and universities, and expanding them to also cover domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.”
The update to the Clery Act’s provisions reflects the lessons learned about what works to prevent campus violence, according to the press releases. This includes increased transparency by adding domestic violence, dating violence and stalking to crime statistics report required by the University, and increased promotion of prevention programs and bystander prevention.
According to Captain Jon Barnwell, patrol division commander of Campus Police, the Act was also updated in October 2010 to provide a missing person notification for on-campus residence halls and apartments, which would ensure that if someone went missing, he or she would have a relative or guardian whom housing could notify. The fall update also included a fire safety report embedded into the annual security report.
Since 2007, there have been 22 reported forcible and non-forcible sexual offenses on and off NCSU’s campus, around half of which occurred within residence halls, according to the campus police website. In addition, there were 12 reported aggravated assaults and two hate crimes.
Eliza Marth, a junior in sociology, says she thinks the annual crime report is incredibly important. Marth also said the NCSU Women’s Center provided her with helpful resources and support concerning possible actions to take against stalking, which empowered her to make decisions about how to handle the situation.
“It’s important for the University to collect data to determine the extent of the problem when looking at systemic issues of violence and especially sexual assault,” Marth said. “It helps hold the University accountable for the well-being of its students.”
Marth also said she would like to see the University continue its efforts, such as the prevention programs outlined by the Clery Act, in addressing the roots of sexual violence, in addition to reporting facts and figures.
The importance of the Act is also underscored by recent events on campus, such as an attempted sexual assault on a female student in March as well as the arrest of a WKNC disc jockey and computer science teaching assistant, who was charged with a felony sexual offense April 19.
Barnwell said that both of these incidents might not appear in the annual security report until 2012.
“One problem with the Department of Education doesn’t require disclosure of crimes until the following year, so crimes that occur in 2011 will appear in the report for 2012,” said Barnwell.
This time period allows everyone to compile and analyze the statistics, according to Barnwell. However, the statistics are uploaded to the campus website in order for students and employees to be informed as quickly as possible.
The form for Clery Act reporting can be filled out anonymously online, where a witness can fill out the date, time, location and type of crime, including forcible and non-forcible sex offenses and hate crimes such as intimidation and simple assault.
