Campus Crime Disclosure Register

PROBLEM: Penn State was sanctioned by the NCAA in July 2012 with a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions, and vacated wins from 1998–2011, following a child sexual-abuse scandal; the U.S. Department of Education fined the university nearly $2.4 million in November 2016 for Clery Act violations — including failing to alert the public about campus dangers and to properly classify and disclose crime statistics from 2008–2011 — the largest Clery Act fine ever imposed at the time (NCAA, July 23, 2012; U.S. Department of Education, November 3, 2016). Crime statistics were misclassified and undisclosed for years.

SOLUTION: A crime-disclosure register in IBM Cloud Ideas that records every reported campus crime, its classification, and its disclosure date in one compliance record, reconciles classifications against the Clery Act definitions automatically, and flags any report that is unclassified or undisclosed past its deadline.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — NCAA sanctions, July 23, 2012 ($60 million fine); U.S. Department of Education Clery Act fine, November 3, 2016 (nearly $2.4 million; largest Clery fine at the time).