The US Department of Education has fined Liberty University a record $14 million (£11 million) after the politically prominent religious institution repeatedly failed to warn the community about sexual violence and other threats. imposed.
Fines for violating the Clery Act (a 1990 law enacted in the wake of the student rape-murder case that requires universities to collect and disclose campus crime information) are the same as those imposed at Michigan State University in the Larry Nassar gymnastics case. That's more than three times the previous record of $4.5 million.
Liberty University, a rural central Virginia university with about 16,000 students and an additional 115,000 students studying online, is best known for its founder, the late televangelist Jerry Falwell. His son, Jerry Falwell Jr., resigned as president of the Liberty Party in 2020 amid a sex scandal. and bans on students in areas such as premarital sex and same-sex relationships.
The Department of Education under the Biden administration has violated the Clery Freedom Act after receiving multiple complaints that universities were not communicating with campus communities about people accused of repeated sexual assaults and about issues such as bomb threats and gas. announced that it had begun an investigation. It will leak.
Other past investigations and lawsuits have accused Liberty administrators of repeatedly blocking publicity about sexual assault and even threatening punitive action against students who raised such complaints.
“Liberty's violations of the Clery Act are widespread,” said Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid, which is responsible for enforcing the Clery Act.
But partisan defenders of freedom, long known as leading champions of conservative causes in U.S. higher education, accuse the Biden administration of deliberately targeting the institution. . In January, Virginia Foxx, the combative Republican chair of the U.S. House Education Committee, led her colleagues in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, warning that the Liberty incident raises the possibility that the department is “targeting religion.” “It suggests that there is,” he complained. Penalize agencies through program reviews and fines that significantly exceed established and documented precedent. ”
Reports at the time said the department was considering fines of up to $37 million, an amount Fox and others called “exorbitant and unprecedented.” She also accused the department of leaking details to the media and not giving Liberty time to consider the allegations against it.
In its response to the $14 million fine, Liberty said it had “repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the Department,” but also “agree that numerous deficiencies existed in the past.” Stated. This time, the university said in a statement that it has a “model Clery program to adhere to many campus improvements that will benefit students and staff for years to come.”
In a separate letter, Liberty President Dondi Costin, a former U.S. Air Force major general who was sworn in as Falwell Jr.'s permanent successor last March, said: This will help you maintain compliance in each of these areas. ”
The Department of Education had its own words of praise. Cordray told reporters at a press conference that the proposed settlement “considers the current Liberty administration's prompt acknowledgment of nearly all of the violations identified in the program review report and its commitment to correct them in the future.” It's a thing,” he said.
paul.basken@timehighereducation.com
