January 31, 2006

The Honorable Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20202

Dear Secretary Spellings:

Nearly twenty years ago Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery was brutally raped and murdered in her residence hall room. Her murderer originally intended to burglarize her room and had gotten in through a series of propped open and unlocked doors. Jeanne’s parents, Connie & Howard, soon learned why students felt safe leaving these doors open, they weren’t aware of a history of violent crime on the campus.

The federal Jeanne Clery Act came about as a result of the Clerys’ tireless crusade to ensure that other students didn’t suffer the same fate as their daughter. Enforced by the U.S. Department of Education, the Act requires colleges to disclose campus crime information to students. Key among these requirements is one to issue a “timely warning” when there is an ongoing threat to campus safety.

Unfortunately schools don’t always issue these warnings, and ED’s enforcement of this requirement has been very limited. One particularly chilling example of this happened late last year at Delaware State University. On October 15 there was an especially brutal robbery, and a female student was choked until she was unconscious. No warning was issued and the next day another unsuspecting student was robbed in a campus residence hall by the same suspect, who had gained entry through an unlocked door. She too suffered serious injury. Again no warning was issued. This is exactly the type of situation the Clerys and Congress wanted to ensure never happened again!

We reported this situation to ED’s Philadelphia office, but no formal action was ever taken and DSU has never acknowledged that they should have done more. In order to ensure student safety at DSU please take immediate action to ensure that this case is fully reviewed and enforcement action is taken.

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to our concerns.

Sincerely,

S. Daniel Carter