The 1990 Clery Act requires all institutions of higher learning that receive federal aid to keep a public record of crimes on and around campus. Citing that law, a U.S. Department of Education team arrived at Penn State last Monday seeking details of not only the alleged rape by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky - but of all crimes committed at the school since 1998, plus its response to each.
Penn State could face fines of up to $27,500 per violation and cuts in federal student financial aid.
"Maybe this will teach them to put every student's safety first," Connie Clery, now 80 and a widow since 2008, said last week from her winter home in Florida.
The intensifying scrutiny of Penn State, she said, makes the couple's campaign for campus safety "all worthwhile."
In the months after Jeanne Clery's April 5, 1986, murder, Connie and Howard Clery discovered there had been 38 other violent crimes on Lehigh's campus in Bethlehem, Pa., in the previous three years.
A year later, they launched a campaign to force colleges to make public all sexual assaults, burglaries, thefts, and homicides affecting student populations.
"You're never told it's dangerous," Howard Clery said in a 1987 Inquirer interview announcing their effort. "So the kids are not careful."
Expanded five times since President George H.W. Bush signed it on Nov. 8, 1990 - with a sixth modification now before a Senate committee - the Clery Act requires colleges to keep a public log with the nature, date, place, and time of all crimes affecting the school.
Schools must also issue prompt warnings if their populations face imminent physical danger (such as a gunman), post their procedures for investigating and prosecuting sexual crimes, and provide descriptions of their security forces and safety programs.
