How Can We Create Safe Campuses?

Sexual violence, active shooters, mental health challenges, and many other factors pose challenges to assuring that our campuses are safe. The Clery Act (20 U.S.C. 1092(f)) was passed following the rape and murder of Jeanne Clery in 1986 at Lehigh University. The intent of the law was to improve campus safety by making information about crime more accessible. One key provision of the law, the emergency notifications and timely warnings requirement, has great potential to be useful in promoting campus safety. But there is an inherent tension between respect for the rights and privacy of victims of crime and the need to keep the public informed. How do we keep the public informed but also avoid victim blaming and revealing information that could cause emotional trauma or worse, trigger retaliation for reporting crime?