Liberty University has agreed to pay an unprecedented $14 million fine for the Christian school’s failure to disclose information about crimes on its campus and for its treatment of sexual assault survivors, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.
The fine is by far the largest ever levied under the Clery Act, a law that requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to collect data on campus crime and notify students of threats. Schools must disseminate an annual security report that includes crime reports and information on efforts to improve campus safety.
Liberty has marketed itself for years as having one of the nation’s safest campuses, with more than 15,000 students enrolled at the school in Lynchburg, Virginia. But its police department had a single officer with minimal oversight for investigating crimes during most of the time period reviewed by federal investigators, 2016 to 2023.
The U.S. Department of Education said it identified numerous cases that resulted in the misclassification or underreporting of crimes. And there were several incidents that the university determined to be unfounded without evidence the initial report was false.
“This was especially common with respect to sexually based offenses, including rape and fondling cases,” the settlement agreement stated.
Federal investigators cited a case in which a woman reported being raped, with the attacker telling her he had a knife, the settlement agreement stated.
Liberty’s investigator “unfounded this case based on a claim that the ‘victim indicates that she consented to the sexual act,’” the agreement stated. “In point of fact, the victim’s own statement merely indicated that she ‘gave in’ in an attempt to get away from the perpetrator.”
That incident was ultimately counted in the crime statistics, the agreement stated, because Liberty’s Clery compliance officer realized the case was “mishandled at several points in the process.”
Many victims of sexual crimes feared reporting because of concerns of reprisal, the agreement stated. Several were punished for violating the student code of conduct known as ‘The Liberty Way,’ while their assailants were left unpunished.”
“Consequently, victims of sexual assault often felt dissuaded by Liberty administration’s reputation for punishing sexual assault survivors rather than helping them,” the agreement said. “Such fears created a culture of silence where sexual assaults commonly went unreported.”
The university said in a statement Tuesday that it is “fully committed to maintaining the safety and security of students and staff without exception.”
The school said it would continue to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Education. And it noted that it has made more than $10 million in significant improvements since 2022 toward complying with the Clery Act and other laws, including in educational programming, new leadership and staffing.
Liberty also acknowledged past problems, including “incorrect statistical reports as well as necessary timely warnings and emergency notifications that were not sent.” But the university also said the U.S. Department of Education used methods and calculations that were “drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities.”
“Liberty disagrees with this approach and maintains that we have repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the department,” the school said.
But Dustin Wahl, co-founder of Save71, an alumni-led organization that advocates for changes, said Liberty is trying to shift the blame.
“Liberty should be apologizing to the students who have been harmed over the years and demonstrating a commitment to change,” he said. “Not because they are being dragged along by the government, but because they genuinely want to be transparent and fix the problems.”
Before Tuesday, the largest Clery Act fine in history was $4.5 million against Michigan State in 2019, according to a February report from the Congressional Research Service. Federal investigators said Michigan State failed to adequately respond to sexual assault complaints against Larry Nassar, a campus sports doctor who molested elite gymnasts and other female athletes.
In 2016, Pennsylvania State University was hit with a then-record fine of $2.4 million in the wake of child sexual-abuse complaints against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The $14 million fine against Liberty University appears to be a small fraction of its total operating revenues, which were $1.2 billion without donor restrictions in fiscal year 2022, according to an annual report. The school’s net assets were $3.5 billion.
But Clery Act violations are “bigger than just the fines,” said Abigail Boyer, associate executive director at the Pennsylvania-based Clery Center, which provides training and assistance to campuses.
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