Title IX Overview
Title IX promotes equal opportunity by ensuring no person may be discriminated against on the basis of sex under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Under Title IX, sexual harassment and sexual violence are both considered discrimination on the basis of sex. Colleges and universities must investigate a Title IX allegation when the college or university “knows or should have known” about the alleged misconduct.
Title IX covers conduct that occurs on campus, off campus but in connection with an education program, and off campus and unrelated to an education program if it creates a hostile environment on campus.
Clery Act Overview
Each year colleges and universities receiving federal funds must publish and distribute a public Annual Security Report (ASR) to employees and students by October 1. This report must include:
Annual Security Report:
- Statistics of campus crimes, meeting specific definitions, for the preceding three calendar years
- Details about the efforts taken to improve campus security
- Policy statements regarding:
- Crime reporting
- Campus facility security and access
- Law enforcement authority
- Incidence of alcohol and drug abuse
- The prevention of/response to sexual assault, domestic or dating violence, and stalking.
Bethel University's Annual Security Report also includes disclosures of fire safety measures in residence areas and statistics for fires which have occurred in those areas.
In addition to the ASR, campus police or security must also maintain a written, easily understood daily crime log which records the nature, date, time, and general location of the crime and disposition of the complaint, if known.
The Clery Act seeks to promote transparency and ongoing communication about campus crimes and other threats to the health and safety of the campus community. Clery states that institutions must issue timely warnings to the campus community and have and disclose emergency response procedures.
Bethel's most recent Annual Security Report is hosted on Bethel.edu at https://www.bethel.edu/safety-security/security/campus-crime-statistics.
Timely Warnings
The Clery Act requires timely warnings be sent to the campus community about crimes that have already occurred but may continue to pose a serious or ongoing threat to students and employees.
Timely warnings are only required to be issued about Clery crimes which occurred in a Clery geographic area. However, institutions are encouraged to report other crimes that may pose a risk to the campus community.
“Timely Warning” is construed to mean that a warning should be issued as soon as pertinent information is available.
For example, we would issue a Timely Warning via the Bethel Alert system as soon as possible following a report of an armed robbery occurring in a campus parking lot.
VAWA Crimes
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) amended and expanded Clery to include crimes of sexual violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
Privacy and Confidentiality
VAWA requires that that victim’s name stay confidential when timely warnings and emergency notifications are issued.
FERPA does not preclude an institution from complying with the timely warning or emergency response procedures required of The Clery Act. Further, FERPA allows information be released without consent in the case of an emergency, when needed to protect the health and safety of others. However, timely warnings must ensure that names and other identifying information about victims remain confidential. Which Crimes Must be Reported Four distinct categories of crimes must be reported in the ASR each year.
Clery Geography
The Clery Act mandates that only crimes which occur in these specific geographic locations are required to be reported:
- On-campus (anywhere)
- On-campus student housing
- Public property within campus bounds
- Public property immediately adjacent to the campus
- Non-campus buildings and property owned or controlled by the organization that are used for educational purposes and frequently used by students but not part of the core campus, or those owned or controlled by a student organization officially recognized by the institution.
Campus Safety Authorities (CSA)
In addition, federal law establishes a requirement for mandated reporting of Clery crimes by Campus Security Authorities.
Campus Safety Authorities include:
- A campus police or security department.
- Any individual who has responsibility for campus security but who do not constitute a campus police or security department, such as an individual who is responsible for monitoring entrance into institutional property.
- Any individual or organization specified in an institution’s statement of campus security policy as an individual or organization to which students and employees should report criminal offenses.
- An official of an institution who has significant responsibility for student and campus activities, including, but not limited to, student housing, student discipline, and campus judicial proceedings.
Examples of Campus Safety Authorities include, but are not limited to:
- Any employee, staff or student, of the Office of Safety and Security.
- University Title IX Coordinator
- A front desk receptionist responsible for restricting access to an office or space
- Coaches and Athletic Trainers
- University Residence Life Deans, Resident Directors, and Resident Assistants.
- Bethel Student Government.
Exemption from mandatory reporting
The only individuals that are expressly exempt from being CSAs under the Clery Act are professional or pastoral counselors while operating within the scope of their license.
Clery Crimes
Crimes which must be reported under the Clery Act have specific definitions:
Non-Negligent Manslaughter
The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.
Negligent Manslaughter
The killing of another person through gross negligence.
Aggravated Assault
An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Simple assaults are excluded.
Arson
Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.
Note that only fires determined through investigation to have been willfully or maliciously set are classified as arsons. Arson is therefore the only Clery Act offense that must be investigated before it can be disclosed. If other Clery Act offenses were committed during the arson incident, the most serious is counted in addition to the arson.
Burglary
The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft. Attempted forcible entry is included.
Thefts from a Motor Vehicle are not included in this definition.
Robbery
The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
Motor Vehicle Theft
The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. A motor vehicle is self-propelled and runs on the surface and not on rails. Motorboats, construction equipment, airplanes, and farming equipment are specifically excluded from this category.
Sex Offenses
The Clery Act has four defined sex offenses for which crime statistics must be collected on Clery geography. They are: rape, fondling, incest and statutory rape.
Rape
The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
Fondling
The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age and/or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
Incest
Non forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
Statutory Rape
Non forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
Alcohol, drug, and weapon violations
The Clery Act requires institutions collect statistics for violations of state law or local ordinances for drug, alcohol, and weapons violations.
Further reporting divides these violations into categories of incidents which are referred for discipline through the institution, and those which were referred for arrest (reported to external law enforcement).
Please note that while all legal violations in these categories are also infractions of the Covenant for Life together, infractions of university-specific lifestyle agreements which do not violate the law are ineligible for statistical reporting under Clery.
Liquor Law Violations
The violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor; maintaining unlawful drinking places; bootlegging; operating a still; furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person; using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor; drinking on a train or public conveyance; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
(Drunkenness and driving under the influence are not included in this definition.)
Drug Law Violations
Violations of State and local laws relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs. The relevant substances include: Opium or Cocaine and their derivatives (Morphine, Heroin, Codeine); Marijuana; synthetic narcotics (Demerol, Methadone); and dangerous non-narcotic drugs (Barbiturates, Benzedrine).
Weapon Law Violations
The violation of laws or ordinances dealing with weapon offenses, regulatory in nature, such as: manufacture, sale, or possession of deadly weapons; carrying deadly weapons, concealed or openly; furnishing deadly weapons to minors; aliens possessing deadly weapons; and all attempts to commit any of the aforementioned.
Hate Crimes
In addition, the following crimes meet the requirements for reporting IF they also meet the criterion for Hate Crime.
Hate Crimes are criminal offenses that manifest evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.
We note when any of the following offenses are motivated by bias: Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter, Sexual Assault, Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Motor Vehicle Theft, Arson, Larceny-Theft, Simple Assault, Intimidation, Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property.
In addition, the following crimes are also reported if they are hate crimes:
Larceny
The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.
Simple Assault
An unlawful physical attack by one person on another where neither the offender displays a weapon, nor the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.
Intimidation
To unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words and/or conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to actual attack. Includes cyber-intimidation if victim is threatened on Clery geography.
Destruction, damage, or vandalism of property
To willfully or maliciously destroy, damage, deface, or otherwise injure real or personal property without the consent of the owner or the person having custody or control of the property.
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Crimes
Domestic Violence
A felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim; by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common; by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred; or by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred.
Dating Violence
Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on the reporting party’s statement with consideration of the length of the relationship, the type of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.
Stalking
Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to (1) fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or (2) suffer substantial emotional distress.
Course of conduct means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about, a person, or interferes with a person’s property.
Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling.
Hazing
As defined by the Stop Campus Hazing Act:
Intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person (whether individually or in concert with other persons) against another person or persons regardless of the willingness of such other person or persons to participate, that is committed in the course of an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, a student organization; and causes or creates a risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution of higher education or the organization (such as the physical preparation necessary for participation in an athletic team), of physical or psychological injury including:
- Whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone’s body, or similar activity;
- Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or other similar activity;
- Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances;
- Causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts; any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct;
- Any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law; and any activity that induces, causes, or requires another person to perform a duty or task that involves a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law.
Student Organization
An organization at an institution of higher education (such as a club, society, association, varsity or junior varsity athletic team, club sports team, fraternity, sorority, band, or student government) in which two or more of the members are students enrolled at the institution of higher education, whether or not the organization is established or recognized by the institution.