Liberty University agrees to $14m fine over crime data

US said school underreported sexual assaults

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 Department of Education said 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, Va. 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 Department of Education said it identified numerous cases that resulted in the misclassification or underreporting of crimes. And there were several incidents 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.

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 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 Department of Education used methods and calculations that were “drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities.”

But Dustin Wahl, cofounder 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.”

Liberty has become one of the world’s largest Christian schools since its 1971 cofounding by religious broadcaster Jerry Falwell Sr. In 2022, the school said it hit a record of 115,000 students pursuing degrees online, beyond the more than 15,000 on campus.

The Clery Act investigation became public knowledge in 2022 in the wake of recent litigation over its handling of sex assault cases. Lawsuits by former students and employees have accused the school of botching sexual assault reports or failing to investigate allegations of rape.