Erie County’s four traditional colleges and universities must report annual crime statistics under the federal Clery Act, which applies to institutions of higher learning nationwide.
GREG WOHLFORD/ERIE TIMES-NEWS
USA TODAY Network, Reuters
Every year on Oct. 1, colleges and universities nationwide must publish and distribute annual campus safety reports as required by the federal Clery Act.
In advance of this year’s deadline, the Erie Times-News took an in-depth look at the Clery Act and reviewed the most recent Clery Act reports, which covered 2024, for Erie County’s four four-year colleges and universities: Gannon University, Mercyhurst University, PennWest Edinboro and Penn State Behrend.
Look for an update after the filing of the Clery Act reports for 2025 on Oct. 1.
The public’s awareness of crime on college campuses was transformed following the 1986 rape and murder of a 19-year-old student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The killing of Jeanne Clery led Congress to pass the Jeanne Clery Act in 1990.
The law requires all universities and colleges that participate in federal student financial aid programs to report crime statistics, including daily crime logs, and provide the public with other information on campus safety.
Colleges and universities must publish their annual Clery Act-mandated reports, known as Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports, by Oct. 1.
The most recent Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports, for 2025, covered three years, through 2024.
The Clery Act has limits.
Though it requires colleges and universities to report crime statistics, the Clery Act does not require the institutions to report how cases were resolved.
In cases in which the allegations involve sexual assault, the disposition typically follows one of two routes, or both: criminal prosecution or a Title IX proceeding.
The former is public. The latter is a private administrative proceeding that the college or university holds to address claims of sexual harassment, sexual discrimination or sexual misconduct.
Title IX proceedings are conducted under Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Title IX investigations are separate from criminal investigations, though the two can operate at the same time. A person who makes a sexual assault claim can decide whether to pursue a Title IX claim.
Law requires no disclosures of outcomes
The Clery Act does not require colleges and universities to make public the final outcomes of Title IX cases or non-Title IX cases, including whether criminal behavior led to a student expulsion or whether a student was convicted in criminal court.
The Clery Act was never designed to require colleges and universities to provide specific outcomes, said Laura Egan, deputy director of the Clery Center.
The nonprofit, based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, helps colleges and universities comply with the Clery Act. Its founders are Jeanne Clery’s parents, who were the originators of the federal law that bears their daughter’s name.
“The intention of the Clery Act was always to promote transparency and accountability between the institution of higher education and its consumer: its students, its employees,” Egan said.
“Prior to the Clery Act coming into place, there were no standards around documenting and reporting out violent crime that happened on or around college campuses. Some places were doing it. Some weren’t. There were no universal expectations.”
The Clery Act, Egan said, requires reporting of crimes that “were made to campus security authorities that occurred within locations that the institution has some sort of ownership or control over, but not the outcomes of those reports.”
Egan said concerns about the reporting process might have influenced the lack of a requirement for reporting outcomes.
“We don’t want people to be deterred from reporting because they think that it has to go through an outcome process,” Egan said. “Also, we want there to be an accurate reflection of the types of behaviors that are occurring on campus.
“Sometimes if you were then requiring the campus to report out on the outcomes, that would cause a chilling effect for people to report them because they wouldn’t want their personal lives upended by knowing that the outcome would be reported.”
Egan also said: “There are many campuses that choose to report out on violations of the student code or criminal outcomes if they know that information, but that is not a current requirement of the law.”
What about crime at Erie County colleges and universities?
The lack of Clery Act standards for reporting outcomes raises a question for the four traditional colleges and universities in Erie County.
When a crime is alleged to have occurred on a college campus in the county, how is the incident reported, investigated and ultimately addressed?
It’s not always easy to tell.
The Erie Times-News reviewed the Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports with 2024 data for Gannon University, Mercyhurst University, PennWest Edinboro and Penn State Behrend.
The Times-News emailed the schools questions on whether the cases were handled through the criminal justice system or Title IX and asked about the disposition of the cases.
The responses varied.
PennWest Edinboro
The decision on whether a case is prosecuted in the criminal justice system or adjudicated through the Title IX process depends on many factors, but is driven by the complainant, officials at the school said.
They also said the complainant can agree or disagree to participate in the Title IX process, though this internal process may continue without the complainant based on information provided.
If the complainant moves forward with the criminal justice process, the ultimate decision regarding prosecution rests with the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, according to PennWest.
Of the cases listed in the 2025 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report:
One rape was reported anonymously at the Edinboro campus but was not investigated because no information was available to contact the complainant.Two reports of sexual harassment weren’t reported to the police as they were not Clery reportable crimes. They fell under the Title IX grievance process.
Of the cases that went to Title IX hearings in 2024:
One complainant withdrew the formal complaint prior to the hearing.One complaint went to an informal resolution at the request of the parties. One complaint went to a hearing and the hearing board found the respondent not responsible.
Penn State Behrend
Penn State officials said the university system handles Title IX hearings centrally, through its Office of Ethics and Compliance, and that Penn State completed 12 Title IX hearings involving cases from all of the university’s colleges and campuses, including Penn State Behrend.
To maintain confidentiality, the university does not share campus-specific data, particularly for such a small number, the officials said.
In addition to the 12 Title IX hearings, another 54 cases from across the university system were resolved through informal resolutions, the officials said. Details on the results of the 12 hearings and on the other cases were not provided.
Penn State Behrend listed six rapes in 2024 on its most recent Clery report. Based on information from the university’s 2024 daily crime log, which Penn State provided:
Two rapes were reported in April 2024. Both were listed on the log as not cleared and with no arrests linked to the incidents at the time.
Four other rapes were reported in 2024. Of those:
Two were listed on the log as not cleared.One was listed as open.Another was listed as prosecution declined.
Mercyhurst University
Mercyhurst University, through a university spokesman, did not specifically address questions from the Erie Times-News on the number of Title IX cases. The university emailed a response that referred to the university’s Title IX grievance policy and sexual and gender-based misconduct policy and its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
In a follow-up email in response to a request for information on the disposition of cases listed in Mercyhurst’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, the spokesman said the information is maintained through the university’s daily crime log. Mercyhurst police provided a copy of the 2024 crime log.
Of the four rapes listed in Mercyhurst’s security report for 2024:
Two are addressed in the daily crime log, with one rape reported April 12, 2024, and the second reported Oct. 1, 2024.The dispositions of those incidents are listed on the log as closed, with the cases referred to the Erie Bureau of Police.The defendant in the April 2024 case, Elijah P. Gibbs, 21, pleaded no contest to rape in July in Erie County Common Pleas Court and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 12, according to court records. The prosecution and defense recommended a sentence of three to eight years.The incident from Oct. 1, 2024, remains an open investigation with no arrests made.Of the other two rapes listed, Mercyhurst Police Chief DJ Fuhrmann said if a complainant does not want police involvement, the incident still gets reported to the university’s Clery compliance officer for inclusion in the annual safety report.
Gannon University
Gannon’s dean of student engagement and development, Paul C. Perrine, was asked how many 2024 cases were prosecuted in criminal court or went to Title IX hearings. He said that, since the university is not involved in the criminal justice system, it lacked the ability to know when a case is prosecuted within that framework. However, the number of its cases are documented in its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
When asked the outcomes of the cases that went to Title IX hearings in 2024, Perrine said Title IX regulations and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, mandate confidentiality regarding outcomes. He said information on outcomes is shared only with the complainant and respondent.
Gannon listed one rape and one burglary under criminal offenses from 2024 on its Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.
Two people were arrested in connection with the burglary and the case was turned over to the Erie Bureau of Police, according to Gannon’s daily crime log, which university police provided.The rape case, from April 2024, involved a report of a sexual assault and was referred to the university’s Title IX investigator, according to the daily crime log.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@usatodayco.com.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@usatodayco.com or 814-870-1813.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie colleges report crimes, but outcomes often stay private under law
Reporting by Tim Hahn and Ed Palattella, Erie Times-News / Erie Times-News
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This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 5:12 AM.