Feds: UNC-CH didn't warn students of campus crime, underreported annual numbers
Federal investigators have determined UNC-Chapel Hill violated the law for years by inaccurately reporting the amount of crime on campus, including not warning students early on about potential safety threats.
Posted — Updated"My entire leadership team and I are deeply committed to ensuring that our campus, as well as the surrounding areas, are safe for our students, faculty, staff and visitors," Guskiewicz said. "We will continue to invest in resources and training to ensure the university has the right tools and procedures to accurately prevent, respond to and report crimes and issue timely notice of any known safety threats to the campus community."
"The University has failed to meet its regulatory responsibilities in numerous and serious ways. Such a failure calls into question the willingness and the ability of UNC to meet its obligations not only to the Department ... but also to its students, employees and the campus community," the report states. "With regard to the Clery Act, such impairment resulted in the institution's systemic failure to provide students and employees with important campus crime information and services essential to their safety and security."
The report included nine findings of deficiencies, including an overall lack of administrative capability; inaccurately compiling crime statistics by misclassifying or excluding at least 20 reports from 2009 to 2012 or failing to include data from Granville Towers, several fraternity and sorority houses and areas just off campus; and failing several times to issue timely campus safety warnings in cases where no one had been apprehended after a crime.
Investigators also dinged UNC-Chapel Hill for delays in producing accurate records during the lengthy probe, noting information had to corrected twice in May alone.
"[It] is abundantly clear that the Department's intervention was the impetus for substantially all of the remedial steps that were taken by the University and that no such action would have been taken if the agency had not intervened by conducting this review," the report states.
On Monday, students said they weren't surprised by the findings.
"I don't see any new movement. I don't see them taking any action to fix this issue, and I keep seeing more violence but nothing that's done about it," student Masiha Rizwan said.
Guskiewicz said a team from a nationally recognized consulting firm for Clery Act compliance matters will be on campus this week to recommend improvements. UNC police also are receiving extra training from the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, he said, and a new vice chancellor to oversee issues such as compliance and public safety will join the administration in January.
Investigators said UNC-Chapel Hill could be fined by the government for its violations, but the school's participation in federal student aid programs isn't in jeopardy.
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