Clery Act and Compliance Information

Clery Act

What is the Clery Act

The Clery Act is a landmark federal law that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Tied to an institution's participation in federal student financial aid programs, the Clery Act is enforced by the United States Department of Education. It requires colleges and universities to compile and publish statistics for crimes on or near their campus, including those identified by Campus Security Authorities, as crimes to be reported by annual submission to the Department of Education and inclusion in the College’s Annual Security Report.

More Information about the Clery Act

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), is a Federal Law that 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 provides students and families, as higher education consumers, with information they need to make informed decisions about college choice. The Clery Act was signed in 1990 and is named after 19-year-old Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in her Lehigh University residence hall in 1986. Clery's parents lobbied Congress to enact the law when they discovered students at Lehigh had not been notified about 38 violent crimes that had occurred on campus in the three years prior to Clery's murder.

The Clery Act requires Reading Area Community College (中国澳门博彩官网) 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 中国澳门博彩官网 to collect, classify, report, and disseminate crime data to everyone on campus and to the U.S. Department of Education annually.

For more information on the Clery Act, please visit clerycenter.org.

Preparation of the Annual Security and Safety Report

The Annual Security Report is prepared by 中国澳门博彩官网's Clery Compliance Officer in conjunction with 中国澳门博彩官网's Campus Security, local law enforcement agencies, and various campus departments responsible for providing programs and services that support Clery compliance. To comply with the federal law, 中国澳门博彩官网 requests and collects crime statistics from local police agencies by providing the addresses of Campus Properties that are owned or controlled by the College or public property immediately adjacent to campus. These statistics are included with the 中国澳门博彩官网 statistics as well as those gathered from reports submitted by Campus Security Authorities (CSAs). Campus Security Authorities include not only 中国澳门博彩官网 Campus Security, but also employees in many campus departments such as Student Activities, Student Affairs, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Student Conduct, Club Advisors.

To be in full compliance with the law, 中国澳门博彩官网 publishes and makes available to current and prospective students and employees it's Annual Security Report (ASR) containing safety and security-related policy statements and crime statistics by October 1 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.

Each year the Director of Marketing or representative sends an email notification to all current students providing a link to an electronic copy of the both the Annual Security Report and Fire Safety Report.

Each year the Director of Facilities, Safety and Security or representative sends an email notification to all faculty and staff providing a link to an electronic copy of the both the Annual Security Report and Fire Safety Report.

Notice of Availability

Students and employees are notified about the availability of the most recent reports via email sent from the Marketing Department by October 1st each year.
Prospective students receive information about the Clery Act via a notification included in the application submission process coordinated by the Office of Admissions.
Prospective and new employees are notified about the Clery Act via the Reading Area Community College Human Resources jobs website/application process.

Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports

Reading Area Community College provides this information to all current and prospective students and employees in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. This act requires all higher education institutions that receive federal financial aid to make public their campus security and fire safety policies and reported crime and fire data for the previous three years.

Since the college does not have any residential facilities it is not required to maintain and provide a Fire Safety Report and fire log.

Additionally, this information must be disseminated to the campus community through the Annual Security Report and Fire Safety Report. 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. The goal of this legislation is to help maintain a safe campus environment by increasing the awareness of crimes committed on campus, the security and fire safety policies in place and crime prevention programs available.

What is a Campus Security Authority

Campus Security Authority (CSA) is a term used by the Department of Education and in the Clery Act to describe someone who is an official of an institution who has significant responsibility for student and campus activities, or who manages or otherwise oversees student and campus activities including, but not limited to, student housing, a student center or student extra-curricular activities. Examples of campus constituents who are included in this broad definition are:

advisors to campus student organizations
staff responsible for student discipline and campus judicial staff
individuals who have responsibility for campus security but who do not constitute a campus police department or a campus security department, such as an individual who is responsible for monitoring entrance into institutional property (desk receptionists, rec center monitors).

Crime Reporting

To comply with the Clery Act federal requirements, CSA's must immediately fill out a Campus Security Authority Incident Report Form in accordance with the following guidelines:

A crime is considered "reportable" when it is brought to your attention. Third-party reports of crimes are Clery-reportable. If the information is provided in good faith (not rumor or hearsay), please report the incident as soon as possible.
You are not required to be affiliated with 中国澳门博彩官网 to report crimes as a victim or a reporting party. All reported crimes will be considered for Clery Statistics. If a crime is reported to you, you must complete the CSA Incident Report Form and submit it to Campus Security or a Clery Compliance Officer.
The victim(s) or reporting party is not required to contact law enforcement authorities and no further investigation is necessary by Campus Security Authorities or law enforcement.
The type of crime and the location information is required for Clery compliance and is key in determining if a crime is reportable as a Clery statistic.

CSA Appointment and Training

Reading Area Community College will appoint all CSA in writing. The Clery Compliance Office is required to maintain a list of Current CSA on campus and monitor and track training for each member.

The college uses the application CLERY EDGE or internally trains to meet its training obligations for Clery Compliance. A current list of CSAs is available upon request and will be published in the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.

Timely Warnings (Clery Crimes only)

The Jean Clery Act requires all institutions to issue timely warnings for Clery Act crimes that occur within the college's Clery geography that pose a serious or continuing threat to the safety of the students, 中国澳门博彩官网 employees and visitors. "The intent of the warning regarding a criminal incident(s) is to enable people to protect themselves" (2016 Handbook p 6-1).

Timely Warnings are issued as soon as pertinent information is available. The communication should be widely distributed using various methods on communication with the goal of preventing similar crimes.

Basic Information for Timely Warning:

Date/time of the incident
The location of the incident
the nature of the Clery Crime
A safety or crime prevention tip
Any information that will assist parties in protecting themselves

Test, Drills and Exercise

Emergency tests are conducted randomly throughout the year by the Director of Facilities/Safety and Security. Emergency drills are conducted at least once during fall and spring semester and include staff, faculty and students. The EMT also conducts training sessions once a semester to assess their readiness as well as the overall effectiveness of the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). This EOP is a confidential and comprehensive document. The purpose of this document is to provide planning and emergency response guidelines in the event that a serious threat, crisis or emergency occurs, enhance the protection of lives and property through effective use of the College and campus community resources, and to create a safe environment for students, faculty, staff and the community.
In conjunction with other emergency agencies, the College conducts emergency response drills and exercises each year, such as tabletop exercises, field exercises, and tests of the emergency notification systems on campus. These tests, which may be announced or unannounced, are designed to assess and evaluate the emergency plans and capabilities of the institution.
Each test is documented and must include a description of the exercise, the date and time of the exercise, and whether it was announced or unannounced.
The campus publicizes a summary of the emergency response and evacuation procedures via email at least once each year in conjunction with a test (exercise and drill) that meets all of the requirements of the Higher Education Opportunity Act. This will also be located on the Clery Compliance webpage
Summary of Annual Test 2024