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The University of California, Berkeley, announced on Sept. 10 that it will pay $2.35 million to the United States Department of Education for violations of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, or Clery Act, which requires federally funded colleges to publish statistics on criminal incidents on or near campuses.
The fine was agreed upon after the department concluded a six-year review of the university’s campus safety policies and procedures and crime statistics reporting, which ended in September 2019, said a message to campus from Chancellor Carol Christ and Marc Fisher, vice chancellor for administration.
The review of records found that among other violations, UC Berkeley misclassified 1,125 crimes, most of which were liquor, drug and weapons violations; the students went through campus disciplinary proceedings, but the cases were not marked as violations of the law, the message said. The department reviewed about 32,000 records from between 2009 and 2016, the message said.
UC Berkeley made “significant improvements” to these processes and policies starting in 2014, and the university will be monitored by the department for an additional two years, the message said.
“We wholeheartedly agree that students and employees are entitled to accurate and honest information about the realities of crime and other threats to their personal safety and the security of their property,” Christ and Fisher said in the message. “UC Berkeley has been and remains committed to complying with the Clery Act’s many technical requirements and campus safety objectives.”
