Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["S. Daniel Carter" <>]

Dear Colleagues-

Legislation was introduced Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives
that would make two amendments to the Clery Act, both of which seem on their
face to be innocuous. I would, however, like to get your input prior to us
adopting a position which we need to do BEFORE MEETINGS IN DC ON MONDAY.

The most substantive amendment would eliminate 435 "foreign" schools that
are in one way or another eligible to receive student aid funding from
reporting obligations. The concern is the lack of availability of consistent
data given the differences between foreign criminal law and our own.

Apparently the U.S. Department of Education already does not require these
schools to report. Also, Congressional staff has indicated to us that it is
not their intent to exclude the foreign branch campuses of American
institutions from any obligations.

> (d) CAMPUS CRIME INFORMATION.‹Section 485(f)(1) (20 U.S.C. 1092(f)(1)) is
> amended by inserting '', other than a foreign institution of higher
> education,'' after ''under this title''.

The other change is purely "housekeeping" and would change references to the
current names of the House and Senate Education Committees to merely
"authorizing committees" in case the legislators decide to change the name
of the committee, or adjust jurisdiction somehow.

We are pursing a third change with the Senate Education Committee that would
exclude technical and trade schools from reporting obligations. These
schools do not have traditional campuses and the requirements aren't a good
fit. The main obstacle, however, has been coming up with a legislative
definition that clearly defines which institutions are covered and which
aren't since federal law treats all types of institutions equally in this
regard.

Any suggestions on how to draft a definition of technical and trade schools
would be greatly helpful. We don't want to inadvertently exclude any schools
physically large enough to benefit from the Clery Act, or schools with
traditional campuses like community colleges so we have to be careful.

Thank you in advance for your input. If you would like to discuss this with
me by phone rather than e-mail, please call me at (610) 768-9330 sometime
Thursday.

********************************
S. Daniel Carter
Senior Vice President
Security On Campus, Inc.
http://www.securityoncampus.org/
e-mail: