Federal officials will start investigating the College's compliance with the Clery Act later this month.
The investigation, which will beginAug. 18, comes more than a year afterstudents and alumni filed a complaintfollowing a press conference held with students and faculty from other filing institutions. The complaint at the time alleged Clery violations of sexual assault, LGBTQ, racial and religious discrimination, hate crimes, bullying and hazing at Dartmouth. (For a PDF of the press conference statements, clickhere)
The Clery Act, signed in 1990, requires higher education institutions to disclose information regarding campus crime. Violating these regulations or failing to take corrective action can lead to federal sanctions that range in severity from fines to termination of federal financial aid programs.
Clery Act investigations are carried out by a 13-member team within the Office of Federal Student Aid compliance division, and estimates show that this low staffing has led 63 percent of noncompliant colleges to avoid punishment,the New York Times reported Aug. 1.That office has releasedcompliance investigation reports for four institutions so far this year.
In a statement, Dartmouthassociate general counsel KevinO'Leary highlighted thehiring of Heather Lindkvist, a Title IX coordinator and Clery compliance officer, to theCollege's staff as an example of the resources Dartmouth has committed to Clery compliance.
"We believe our efforts meet the requirements of the Act and reflect the best practices for safeguarding our community,"O'Leary wrote.
Anna Winham '14, one of the original complainants, said that she is interested to see what will happen as a result of the investigation but that she does not want to be preemptively optimistic.
"Since we haven't seen any significant changes since we filed, I'm not celebrating yet," she said.
Winham said she was not disappointed by the yearlong stretch between filing a complaint and the beginning of the investigation because the Title IX investigation happened very shortly after that report was filed.
In part, complaints filed a Clery Act complaint because it covered a wider range of experiences, instead of just focusing on sexual assault, she said.
The investigation's ability to look at issues including racism, discrimination against LGBTQ individuals and bullying, as well as sexual assault is incredibly important, Dartmouth Change member Alexandra Arnold '10 said.
Like Winham, Arnold said she does not know if the investigation will impact the College's current policies, but she noted the importance of the attention the College will receive.
"Once again, it puts us into a national spotlight, which puts a ton of pressure on the College to change things," she said.
An investigation into alleged violations of the Clery Act is not an automatic announcement of guilt, said Peter Lake, who directs the center for higher education law and policy at Stetson University College of Law.
Though he noted that the College's high profile may attract more public attention, he said that it is important not to rush judgment before the investigation finishes.
While findings could hurt the College if violations are found, he said they could also have a positive impact on the College is it is found to meet the standards. He said the investigation could be an opportunity for the College to show what it has achieved in combatting sexual assault.
"There is an opportunity for the president, who has shown interesting leadership with the issue, to seize the moment and work with national leaders and help set the standards."
The College reported24 counts of forcible sex offensesin 2012, 11 of which occurred on campus property. The 2013 disclosure will be released Oct. 1.
The College announced the investigation in a1 a.m.campus digest emailon Fridaymorning.
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights visited campus several times this year as part of a Title IX investigation into the College's climate surrounding sexual assault.
The Title IX investigation was launched in May 2013, several weeks after the Clery Act complaint was filed, and is ongoing. A year later, the federal government announced that it was investigating 55 institutions, including Dartmouth, for possibly violating Title IX regarding how it treated sexual violence and sexual harassment complaints.
Yale University is the only Ivy League institutionto have undergonecomplete Title IX and Clery Act investigations.
This article will be updated as more informationisavailable.
