[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 126 (Thursday, August 2, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY HIDES THE TRUTH

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                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 1, 2007

  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, when they send their son or daughter off to 
college this fall, millions of parents will be counting on these 
educational institutions to take the reasonable steps to keep them 
safe. After reading an editorial, ``Campus security is a crime'', in 
USA Today, I'm afraid that trust may be misplaced.
  Last December, Eastern Michigan University, EMU, student Laura 
Dickinson was raped and murdered in her own residence hall room. The 
campus police immediately opened a homicide investigation and called in 
the State police for help. Campus officials, however, issued a press 
release saying there was no reason to suspect foul play. In an 
especially unconscionable act, they even led the young woman's parents 
to believe she had died from a preexisting heart condition.
  This cover-up was not exposed until more than 2 months later when 
police arrested another student, apparently unknown to the victim, and 
charged him in connection with the crimes. For more than 2 months, 
students were not told that a rapist and murderer was free amongst them 
lulling them into a false sense of security. When they found out they 
were outraged and I share their outrage. We owe America's college 
students and their families better.
  As horrific as this is it isn't a new problem. After the chillingly 
similar rape and murder of Jeanne Clery at Lehigh University in 1986, 
Congress examined the scope of campus crime and found that cover-ups 
and violations of victims' rights were rampant. In response, the Crime 
Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 was adopted to require 
colleges to be up-front about their crime and respect victims' rights. 
In 1998 it was renamed the Jeanne Clery Act in memory of the student 
who had inspired it.
  The problem, however, as USA Today points out, is that this law isn't 
being properly enforced. Even though there are more than 6,000 
institutions of postsecondary education between 1994 and 2006 only 17 
Clery Act specific reviews were conducted by the U.S. Department of 
Education, the agency charged with enforcing the Act. An even smaller 
number, three, were fined for violations.
  This has led to widespread violations of the Act. Only about a third 
of all institutions properly comply with the Act according to a report 
issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in December of 2005. Simply 
put, their chances of getting caught are very small and the chances of 
being punished are virtually nonexistent. As a former judge, let me 
tell you, when there are no consequences for wrongdoing it won't stop.
  In an investigation called for by Security On Campus, Inc., a 
national non-profit victims' rights group co-founded by Jeanne Clery's 
parents Connie and Howard, the Education Department found that EMU had 
not only violated the Clery Act by failing to warn their students about 
the murder, but also had an extensive history of violations. They 
should face significant fines for these violations and other schools 
need to know that they too will face a penalty if they lie about campus 
violence. Once the U.S. Department of Education finally begins taking 
the Clery Act seriously colleges and universities will too.
  That's just the way it is.

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