For more than 30 years, the Clery Act has served as the primary federal law setting forth safety and security requirements for institutions—requirements that serve the law’s goals of increased transparency, accountability, and safety for campuses.
Now, A President’s Guide to the Clery Act: 2023 Edition (PDF), the result of a collaboration with the law firm Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP, provides a high-level overview of Clery’s requirements for presidents and chancellors and other senior leaders to assist them in their compliance efforts and their work to provide safer learning environments for all members of our campus communities, notes ACE President Ted Mitchell in introducing the guide.
Clery compliance is an essential part of an effort to provide a safe learning environment and helps underscore institutional commitment to the safety and well-being of all community members. While the law’s overarching goal is clear, its requirements and detailed implementing regulations and subregulatory guidance are layered and complex.
The guide focuses on five core elements of a Clery compliance program that a president and other senior leaders should understand to ensure that a campus has solid policies and protocols in place that align with Clery’s expectations.
Critical to the work to craft the new guide were Hirsch Roberts Weinstein’s John T. Graff and Alicia M. Ward, as well as ACE’s Peter McDonough and Anne Meehan.