Crime and Safety Data

Clery Act Requirement Updates: Violence Against Women Reauthorizations Act (VAWA) of 2013 – On March 7th, 2013, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) (Pub. Law 113-4), which, among other provisions, amended section 485(f) of the HEA, otherwise known as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). The Clery Act requires institutions of higher education to comply with certain campus safety and security related requirements as a condition of their participation in the title IV, HEA programs. Notably, VAWA amended the Clery Act to require institutions to compile statistics for incidents of dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault and to include certain policies, procedures, and programs pertaining to these incidents in their annual security reports (ASR). The sexual assault statistics are counted in the areas specified.

Location Definitions

Crime statistics are reported by location, i.e., on-campus, non-campus, student residences, and public property. The areas for disclosure are identified as:

On-Campus:
Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution of higher education within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution and used by the institution in direct support of, or in a manner related to, the institution’s educational purposes, including the on-campus student housing.

Any property within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution but controlled by another person, is used by students, and supports institutional purposes (such as food or other retail vendors). Crime statistics occurring within existing commercial lease holders within University Plaza shopping center are not reported as the business existed prior to the University’s acquisition of this property.

Non-Campus:
Any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution; or Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is frequently used by the students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.

Public Property:
All public property that is within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution, such as a sidewalk, a street, other thoroughfare, or parking facility, and is adjacent to a facility owned or controlled by the institution if the facility is used in direct support of or in a manner related to the institution’s purposes.

Student Residence:
A subset of “on-campus” crime statistics, which includes only those crimes that were reported to have occurred in on-campus student housing.