By Robin Hattersley Gray

In honor of National Campus Safety Awareness Month and in response to requests from institutions of higher education across the nation, the Clery Center for Security on Campus has developed online Clery compliance training that will be available starting Sept. 16.

“We know campuses are dealing with limited travel budgets and time, so we were looking for a way to provide valuable training that is accessible to them and that they can work into their own schedules,” says Abby Boyer, assistant executive director of programs, outreach and communication for the Clery Center.

The online curriculum, which is sponsored by Siemens and Campus Safety magazine, is the same as the curriculum used for the Clery Center’s in-person training. “It’s been vetted by the Departments of Justice and Education,” says Boyer. “We’ve also incorporated the questions and specific challenges institutions have brought to us over the years that we have been conducting training.”

Topics covered include emergency response and notification, incident reporting, sexual violence prevention and response and how to develop annual security report. The interactive training includes real-life examples and scenarios.

In addition to campus law enforcement, the new online training is intended for all campus security authorities (CSA), including student affairs, legal counsel, housing, contract security, faculty or staff advisors to student organizations, and more. The Building a Safer Campus Community module specifically addresses administrative issues and how campus officials can develop collaboration in their communities. It also addresses Title IX.

“We know that there are a lot of different pieces that apply both under Clery and Title IX, so we talk about the intersection; what that looks like and how the Title IX coordinator can work with individuals responsible for Clery to bring these two laws together in a way that is appropriate for their campus,” says Boyer.

To register for the online training, visit www.CleryCenter.org/Training.

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What You Will Learn from the Clery Online Training

1. Four Ws of Crime Statistics: This module is divided into lesson plans that cover all of the Clery Act reporting requirements regarding collecting, classifying, and counting crime data. It covers (1) campus security authorities — to whom crime is reported, individuals exempt from the reporting requirement, relevant geographic locations and crime definitions along with how to count Clery Act crimes; (2) the application of the Hierarchy Rule and the required elements regarding counting and classifying bias motivated crimes; (3) how to disclose arrests and referrals for disciplinary action; and (4) strategies to establish and/or improve cooperation and collaboration with local law enforcement as well as with on/off campus security authorities.
2. Alerting: This module discusses the ongoing disclosure requirements of the Clery Act; specifically emergency notification, timely warnings, and the daily crime and fire logs. The provisions of the emergency notifications and timely warnings are designed to inform the campus community of potential threats against which they can take preventive measures — arm the campus community with knowledge that may prevent them from becoming victims of the same emergency threat or crime. The daily crime log enables the campus community to access the types and locations of crimes committed within the geographic reporting areas, regardless of whether they are Clery Act crimes. The addition of the fire log requirement is introduced, as it further promotes campus safety.
3. Building a Safer Campus Community: The majority of this module focuses on the special considerations of sex offenses committed against students, procedures to follow after a sex offense occurs and programs that campuses can initiate to educate the campus and prevent sex offenses. Other required policies presented are those that address the need to implement crime prevention and security awareness programs as well as substance abuse education. Requirements for access to information about registered sex offenders in the campus community will also be discussed. Participants gain an understanding of the benefit of going further than the Clery Act requires, namely, to develop and implement promising practices that address security awareness and prevention programs. Collaboration with community agencies is addressed as a significant means of providing needed programs and services on campus and how to develop collaborative partnerships.
4. Putting It All Together: This module synthesizes and reviews all of the Clery Act requirements presented in the preceding modules. It is designed to provide participants with an overview of all of the required contents of the annual security report (ASR), including policy disclosure statements and crime statistics as well as when, how, and to whom the annual security report should be distributed. Policy requirements regarding fire safety are briefly presented.

Robin Hattersley Gray is executive editor for Campus Safety magazine. She can be reached at (310) 533-2534.

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