2023 ANNUAL SECURITY REPORT 3 About the Clery Act Choosing a post-secondary institution is a major decision for students and their families. Along with academic, financial and geographic considerations, the issue of campus safety is a vital concern. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (KU) recognizes the effect this life-changing choice may have for students and seeks to provide a safe and secure environment in which its students can live, learn and grow. Understanding that no community is free from crime, the University remains firm in its pursuit of an environment that is as safe as possible where students can learn, faculty can teach and staff can support the mission of the institution. The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, known as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act), provides students and families, as higher education consumers, with the information they need to make informed decisions about college choice. The Clery Act (1990) requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Under the watchful eye of the U.S. Department of Education, all post-secondary institutions participating in Title IV student financial aid programs are required to comply with this Act to avoid being penalized with significant fines and suspension from participation in Title IV programs. The Clery Act is named after 19-year-old Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in her Lehigh University residence hall in 1986. Clery’s parents, who believed the University had failed to share vital information with its students regarding campus safety, campaigned for legislative reform when they discovered students at Lehigh hadn’t been notified about thirty-eight violent crimes, including rapes, robberies, and assaults, which had occurred on campus in the three years prior to Clery’s murder. Their sustained efforts ultimately resulted in the passage of the Clery Act, a federal law requiring all universities and colleges receiving federal student financial aid programs to report crime statistics regarding crimes that occur on or near their respective campuses, alert campus of imminent dangers, and distribute an Annual Campus Safety and Security Report (including a Fire Safety Report) to current and prospective students and employees. Compliance is monitored by the United States Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties, up to $62,689 per violation, against institutions for Clery Act infractions and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student financial aid programs. Clery Act Compliance @ KU KU has a vested interest in campus security and the personal safety of its students and employees. The following pages contain specific information related to the Clery Act, such as campus crime statistics, as well as other matters of importance associated with security and safety on campus. Members of the campus community are encouraged to use this report as a guide for safe practices on-campus and off-campus. An online copy of this report is available at www.kutztown.edu/clery. The Clery Act requires Kutztown University to provide timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees and to make their campus security policies available to the public. The Act also requires KU to collect, classify, report, and disseminate crime data to everyone on campus and to the U.S. Department of Education on an annual basis. Clery Act requirements fall into three categories based on the configuration of an institution: (1) Clery crime statistics and security-related policy requirements that must be met by every institution; (2) an additional Clery crime log requirement for institutions which have a campus police or security department; and (3) Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) missing student notification and fire safety requirements for institutions that have at least one on-campus student housing facility. Kutztown University falls into all of these categories. To be in full compliance with the law, KU publishes and makes available to current and prospective students and employees this Annual Security Report (ASR) containing safety and security-related policy statements and crime statistics by October 1st of each year. The report provides crime statistics for the past three years, details campus and community policies about safety and security measures, describes campus crime prevention programs and lists procedures to be followed in the investigation and prosecution of alleged sex offenses.
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