The investigation into Lehigh\u2019s compliance with the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act is still under review nearly six years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On June 12, 2020, Lehigh announced it was<\/a> under review for Clery compliance in a statement from Lehigh\u2019s Board of Trustees and leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n The announcement, addressed to members of Lehigh\u2019s Black Student Union, responded to a request for action to eliminate racist behaviors on campus. But within the message, it also stated the U.S. Department of Education \u201cinitiated a separate review\u201d of the university\u2019s compliance with the Clery Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Brown and White received a Freedom of Information Act request filed with the ED asking for Lehigh\u2019s Clery Act-related Final Program Review Determination. The response stated no records were located because \u201cthe investigation is still pending and under review.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Brown and White spoke with the Lehigh University Policy Department and a Clery Act compliance expert to discuss the status of the ED\u2019s investigation and whether this six-year timeline is typical for Clery reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n History of Lehigh\u2019s Clery compliance<\/p>\n The Clery Act is a right-to-know law that requires postsecondary institutions participating in financial aid programs to \u201cdisclose campus crime statistics and other security information to students and the public.\u201d It also requires institutions to develop crime prevention policies and procedures, according to the ED<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The law was named in honor of Jeanne Clery<\/a>, a Lehigh student who was raped and killed in her Lower Centennial dorm room in 1986. Her death sparked the law\u2019s enactment to improve campus safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ED conducts<\/a> reviews to evaluate institutions\u2019 compliance with the Clery Act. Reviews are initiated \u201cwhen a complaint is received, a media event raises certain concerns, the school\u2019s independent audit identifies serious non compliance,\u201d or coincide with state reviews performed by the FBI\u2019s Audit Unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ED notified Lehigh<\/a> it was under review in a letter<\/a> sent to former president John Simon on June 10, 2020. The letter stated Lehigh was to submit Clery Act reports dated from 2017 to 2019 by June 26, 2020, and \u201caudit trails\u201d with 24 deliverables \u2014 including crime logs and incident reports \u2014 by July 10, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n The letter stated the ED received complaints alleging Lehigh violated the Clery Act as the reason for the review.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of our oversight activities, the Department also monitors media coverage of incidents of crime on campus,\u201d according to the letter. \u201cTaken together, the complaints and media accounts raise serious concerns about Lehigh\u2019s compliance and the effects that any violations may have on victims of crime and the accuracy and completeness of the university\u2019s crime statistics and other campus safety information.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The ED also asked Lehigh to provide a list of all reports related to alleged misconduct by any faculty, including former professor James Peterson<\/a>, who resigned in January 2018, and former health center director Thomas Novak<\/a>, who was released in October 2019. Both were involved<\/a> in investigations<\/a> of sexual misconduct and harassment involving members of the Lehigh community.\u00a0<\/p>\n In The Brown and White\u2019s reporting<\/a> when the university first announced the Clery review in June 2020, two official complaints against Lehigh sent to the Clery Branch of the ED were verified. Both complaints referred to Lehigh\u2019s handling of the allegations against Peterson. But The Brown and White couldn\u2019t confirm<\/a> whether either complaint specifically sparked Lehigh\u2019s Clery review.\u00a0<\/p>\n Where the investigation stands now\u00a0<\/p>\n Lehigh Police Chief Jason Schiffer said, as far as he knows, the investigation remains open.<\/p>\n Since the review began in 2020, he said Lehigh has fully cooperated with the investigation, including immediately providing all documentation requested by the ED in the letter to Simon. Lehigh requested an extension beyond the July 10,2020 deadline, which the ED approved, to gather the necessary materials. The university met the extended deadline.<\/p>\n Schiffer said through 2021, there were follow-up requests for information from the ED that Lehigh also complied with. In 2022, he said a representative from the ED\u2019s Clery Branch visited campus to interview him and other Lehigh employees with responsibilities related to Clery Act compliance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schiffer said the last time Lehigh heard from the ED was in spring 2024, when it made a follow-up request for additional information that\u2019s since been provided.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s been no communication from the ED since then.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFrom our perspective, we would believe the investigation remains open, but they haven\u2019t asked us for any more information,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not waiting for us, so I don\u2019t know officially where it stands other than that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The ED\u2019s press office didn\u2019t respond to The Brown and White\u2019s request for comment regarding the status of the investigation. Additionally, the ED\u2019s information office said it was \u201cdown\u201d when called.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schiffer said Lehigh was told there wasn\u2019t a specific incident that caused the Clery review. Rather, the reasoning provided was that the ED reviews a number of schools each year in response to complaints and monitors news coverage that may draw attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also said he couldn\u2019t confirm whether the Peterson scandal, which occurred before he started working at Lehigh, triggered the review.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c(Investigators) indicated to me that this was an ordinary program review,\u201d Schiffer said. \u201cI can\u2019t say for sure if one triggered the other, but they told us it was a regular program review, not in response to a specific thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Schiffer said the ED hasn\u2019t provided any update on the investigation or a timeline for when Lehigh might hear from officials again.\u00a0<\/p>\n How this compares to other investigations\u00a0<\/p>\n The timeline of Lehigh\u2019s investigation is unusually long compared with other universities, according to Clery compliance experts and published data.\u00a0<\/p>\n President of SAFE Campuses, LLC<\/a> S. Daniel Carter, who shared the FOIA request with The Brown and White, said a communication gap of more than two years with the ED is \u201chighly unusual.\u201d SAFE Campuses is a consulting firm that provides institutional support in Clery Act compliance, Title IX policies and hazing prevention, among other services.<\/p>\n He also confirmed the investigation wasn\u2019t due to a randomly selected review, but rather in response to \u201ccomplaints that allege that the university engaged in a pattern of conduct\u201d that violated the act, as stated in the letter sent to Simon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carter said the ED typically won\u2019t conduct a program review without evidence of substantial issues warranting an investigation, especially because program reviews are intensive and time-consuming.\u00a0<\/p>\n Usually, after an institution submits the required documents to the ED following notification of investigation, he said the ED will then issue a preliminary program review report.\u00a0<\/p>\n The university then has a chance to respond within an allotted time frame before the Final Program Review Determination is issued. The ED<\/a> then determines whether a fine is appropriate.<\/p>\n Schiffer said Lehigh hasn\u2019t received a preliminary program review report from the ED.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the Federal Student Aid website<\/a>, the most recent Clery investigation listed was for Liberty University. The university was ultimately fined $14 million<\/a> and required to put $2 million toward Clery Act operations during a two-year period of post-review.<\/p>\n Liberty\u2019s review found<\/a> multiple categories of noncompliance, including failure to provide accurate informational disclosures and failure to uphold the Violence Against Women Act. The university was first notified in 2022 that it was under review, with a preliminary program report<\/a> issued in 2023 and a final determination made in 2024 \u2014 far shorter than Lehigh\u2019s six-year pending investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carter said there\u2019s a possibility the ED\u2019s delay could be due to the Clery Branch\u2019s review of Liberty taking place from 2022 to 2024. Additionally, restructuring<\/a> and dismantling<\/a> of the ED by President Donald Trump could hinder the timeliness of the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n But he said this is no excuse for a two-year gap in communication, which underscores the importance of the Clery Act and compliance investigations in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe complainants deserve better,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThe institution deserves better. The students that the law is intended to protect deserve better. The Clery Act does not work properly when an investigation sits idle for two years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He also said a five-year statute of limitations applies to Clery Act fines imposed by federal law, creating an incentive to resolve enforcement matters within that time frame. This makes the fact that Lehigh\u2019s review has exceeded five years even more atypical.\u00a0<\/p>\n Representatives from the Clery Center declined to comment on Lehigh\u2019s timeline because they\u2019re not the enforcement authority for the Clery Act. They shared that it\u2019s common for Clery program reviews to take multiple years, often in the range of two to four years.<\/p>\n Why this matters\u00a0<\/p>\n Carter said allowing an investigation to exceed five years makes it impossible to impose civil penalties for any underlying violations that prompted it. This is detrimental to overall enforcement of the act.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNobody should have this being held over their heads for five years, especially if there\u2019s been no communication for two years,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s just not fair. That\u2019s not right. And there needs to be some resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n Schiffer said the process can be frustrating, especially because compiling the reports required by the ED takes significant time and effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also said LUPD has a strong relationship with the Clery Center. By working with the organization, he\u2019s learned significantly about Clery and the importance of remembering that Clery investigations were precipitated by the tragedy of her death, and that it\u2019s critical to uphold her legacy by keeping campus safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs a university, I think we should be doing our best to be the best at Clery action plans to honor Jeanne and her legacy,\u201d Schiffer said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The investigation into Lehigh\u2019s compliance with the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act is still under review nearly six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[83277,4784,119,121,120,6223,7363,295],"class_list":["post-186705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-8-min-read","tag-administration","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-analysis","tag-safety","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}