Liberty University Fined $14 Million for Failing to Report Sexual Violence

This story was originally published by The 19th.

The Department of Education announced Tuesday that it has levied a historic $14 million fine against Liberty University, a private Christian institution in Lynchburg, Virginia, saying that it violated a federal statute that requires colleges and universities to disclose data related to campus sexual assaults and other crimes.  

The Clery Act, which Congress enacted in 1990 after the rape and murder of college student Jeanne Clery four years earlier, mandates colleges to provide support to sexual assault survivors and detail the policies they’ve implemented to make campuses more secure as well.

The multimillion-dollar fine that the Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) has imposed on Liberty stems from a settlement agreement with the university for “material and ongoing violations” of the Clery Act. 

“The $14 million fine is the largest fine ever imposed on a school for violating the Clery Act,” said FSA Chief Operating Officer Richard Cordray during a call with reporters Tuesday. “The settlement also requires Liberty to bring its programs and operations into full compliance with the law and to do so in a manner that will provide reasonable assurance that these violations will not recur under the agreed terms.”

Federal officials began investigating Liberty in 2022 after multiple complaints had been lodged against the university, founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell. In May 2023, the FSA released a report outlining Liberty’s alleged violations of the Clery Act, dating back to 2016. The officials found that Liberty did not disclose complete information about campus crimes, including by omitting reported crimes from its annual security reports, which it failed to put out for several years. The FSA report also found that the university neglected to maintain an up-to-date and daily crime log and failed to meet various sexual violence prevention and response requirements in compliance with the Violence Against Women Act. These requirements include notifying sexual violence survivors of their rights.

When campus crimes did occur, Liberty University did not give its community members timely warnings about offenses that constituted significant and sustained threats, the FSA found. Similarly, it did not alert campus community members about dangerous situations that may have imperiled their health or safety, according to the FSA report.

As part of the settlement announced Tuesday, Liberty agreed to spend $2 million to improve campus safety and enhance its compliance over the next two years, the department said. An outside accounting firm will assess Liberty’s progress on that front. To guarantee that the school follows through on the promised improvements, the Department of Education will monitor Liberty through April 2026, noting that if the university again fails to comply with the Clery Act, its participation in federal student aid programs could be put at risk and it could face other sanctions.

“Students, faculty and staff deserve to know that they can be safe and secure in their school communities. We respond aggressively to complaints about campus safety and security,” Cordray said in a statement. “Through the Clery Act schools are obligated to take action that creates safe and secure campus communities, investigate complaints and responsibly disclose information about crimes and other safety concerns. We will continue to hold schools accountable if they fail to do so.”

The settlement Liberty reached with the Department of Education requires the university to fully comply with the Clery Act. Liberty has also agreed to spend more money on improving campus safety. In a statement, Liberty President Dondi E. Costin said, “Liberty has taken the initiative to invest more than $10 million in significant advancements on campus since 2022. This investment has been made in areas such as our infrastructure, security assets and surveillance equipment. In addition, we utilized numerous information resources and committed over 45,000 hours of training to employees who have reporting responsibilities related to Title IX and Clery compliance across Liberty’s entire campus.” 

But a different statement from Liberty University suggested that the Department of Education singled out the institution, treating it more harshly than other higher education institutions that haven’t complied with the Clery Act.

Many of the Department of Education’s “methodologies, findings and calculations were drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities,” the institution said. “Liberty disagrees with this approach and maintains that we have repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the department. The university concurs there were numerous deficiencies that existed in the past. Examples include incorrect statistical reports as well as necessary timely warnings and emergency notifications that were not sent. We acknowledge and sincerely regret past program deficiencies and have since corrected these errors with great care and concern.”

In January, House Republicans wrote a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in which they raised concerns that the agency was targeting religious institutions such as Liberty through “program reviews and fines that greatly exceed established and documented precedent.” 

Liberty said in its statement about Tuesday’s settlement that it is committed to keeping its students and staff safe and that it will continue to cooperate with the Department of Education to that end. Liberty also said that it will work “for a fair, consistent, and principled standard of Clery compliance that is applied equally to all universities without prejudice.”

Staff, students, parents and other community members may file complaints about a school suspected of violating the Clery Act by contacting [email protected] with details and documentation about the potential infraction, such as a school urging individuals not to report sexual violence. 

To file a Title IX complaint, particularly related to sex discrimination, sexual harassment or sexual violence, contact the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.