Feds Fine Yale $165K, Citing Unreported Sex Crimes

Yale owes the federal government $165,000 after multiple violations of the Clery Act, which calls on colleges to report crimes and release safety warnings. Among the "serious and numerous" violations, per a letter from a Department of Education official, are four unreported forcible sex offenses; the category includes rape, sexual assault, and fondling, the Huffington Post reports. Each of those offenses carries a $27,500 fine. Yale also owes that amount for leaving certain policy statements out of its crime reports, plus an additional $27,500 because it left out Yale-New Haven Hospital crime figures.

Officials investigated Yale in connection with the Clery Act for seven years, starting in 2004. Yale made some corrections to its reporting in 2004, but that was too late, says a Department of Education official. "Students and employees must be able to rely on the institution's reported statistics," she says. For its part, Yale says safety is "of paramount importance," but it "believes that the department's imposition of maximum fines is not warranted based on the particular situations that resulted in findings of violations." The university is asking officials to "reconsider and lower the fine." (More Yale University stories.)