March 5 (UPI) — Liberty University, a private Christian school in Virginia, has been hit with a record $14 million fine for failing to report campus crime, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.
The fine is the largest on record for violations of the federal Clery Act, which requires schools to create “safe and secure campus communities” and “responsibly disclose information about crimes and other safety concerns,” according to Rich Cordray, chief operating officer for student aid with the Department of Education.
The private university in Lynchburg, which receives federal financial aid, has also been ordered to pay a separate fine of $2 million “for on-campus safety improvements and compliance enhancements.”
Liberty University, which was founded by the late Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell, is accused of failing to investigate complaints, including a stalking incident involving a student athlete, according to the Department of Education. The department also accused the university of erasing evidence related to its investigation in 2022, after a dozen women filed lawsuits.
According to the investigation, Liberty was accused of persuading sexual assault victims not to file reports because the school prohibits students from engaging in premarital sex or being alone with a member of the opposite sex.
The women accused Liberty administrators of accepting the denials of alleged predators, who were often male athletes, instead of helping the victims.
While Liberty University spokesman Ryan Helfenbein said, “We acknowledge and sincerely regret past program deficiencies and have since corrected these errors with great care and concern,” he accused the Department of Education of “selective and unfair treatment.”
“In the report, many of the Department’s methodologies, findings and calculations were drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities,” Helfenbein said in a statement Tuesday.
“Liberty disagrees with this approach and maintains that we have repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the Department.”
In its statement, the university said that it “made more than $10 million in significant advancements” before the settlement, including “corrective measures, educational programming, new leadership and staffing, infrastructure and facilities in order to focus on compliance and ensure strong and sustainable Title IX and Clery Act programs.”
