April 26, 2002



The Honorable Arlen Specter
United States Senate
711 Senate Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Specter:

We continue to see widespread failure to comply with the federal Jeanne Clery Act that you sponsored in memory of my beloved sister.

When a college is caught hiding campus crime, they usually claim that they didn’t know what they were doing. In a recent example at Vermont’s Lyndon State College it came out in open court that their head of security had no training in the Clery Act. Students continue to be denied information about campus crime that they need to protect themselves.

The U.S. Department of Education needs to provide much more extensive technical assistance to colleges on how to comply with the Clery Act. Unfortunately they have indicated that they do not have “the money in the budget” to provide this assistance.

We strongly believe that this technical assistance, in the form of a Clery Act compliance office and handbook are needed. Schools should be clearly told what is expected of them, and shouldn't be able avoid responsibility by claiming ignorance.

Please help secure for the U.S. Department of Education the funds needed to operate an extensive Clery Act technical assistance project.

Thank you for your leadership on making our nation’s campuses safer, and for the support you have offered our family over the years.

Sincerely,



Howard K. Clery, III
Executive Director
Security On Campus, Inc.

c.c.: Howard & Connie Clery
S. Daniel Carter
Joel Epstein