After an extraordinary and grueling procedure that began in February 2022, Liberty University and the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) have finally concluded the Clery Act Program Review and signed into a $14 million settlement deal. Liberty is unwaveringly dedicated to upholding the Clery Act and ensuring the security and safety of all of our employees and students.
In the Department’s history of public evaluations, the Clery Act Program Review spanned over seven years, making it by far the longest review period of any higher education institution. Numerous methods, conclusions, and computations used by the Department in the report differed significantly from how they had previously handled other colleges. Liberty objects to this unfair handling.In order to allocate an extra $2 million of university funding for fresh campus safety upgrades, Liberty University started an extraordinary negotiation. Rather of being sent to Washington, D.C., the university required that the additional cash be used for the benefit of our Liberty community as a condition of the settlement. The purpose of the extra funding is to guarantee robust and long-lasting Title IX and Clery Act programs through compliance and campus safety activities. The more than $10 million that Liberty University has invested in noteworthy developments since 2022 will be augmented by this unprecedented settlement.The institution acknowledges that there were many shortcomings in the past even though it also maintains that we have consistently received biased and unjust treatment from the Department.
We have taken these required changes seriously and acknowledge and regret our previous mistakes. Mistakes include, but are not limited to, inaccurate statistics reporting and the failure to send necessary emergency notifications and timely warnings. Since then, we have taken corrective action, implemented educational programs, modified policies and procedures, improved governance, hired more experts, invested more money in software, facilities, and equipment, and put a renewed emphasis on student safety—our Title IX office is located in the center of campus—to address these errors.In order to effectively educate our community, the university has also been able to use technology and process modifications to help with the promptness and transparency of our reaction to crimes.
We now have more ways for students, staff, parents, and visitors to report concerns, and the Champion Safe app has made “safety at their fingertips” possible. We have established the Office of University Compliance, which will directly oversee Clery and Title IX governance along with all other areas of university compliance, in order to place a stronger emphasis on overarching accountability. We are steadfast in our pledge to focus on continued compliance in this area.
At Liberty University, a new day has begun. For compliance with numerous campus enhancements, we now have a model Clery program in place, which will help our students and staff in the future. We will keep collaborating with the Department to put student safety first and to push for an impartial, equitable, and moral standard of Clery compliance that is applied to all colleges equally.