The Department of Education on Tuesday imposed a $14 million fine on Liberty University, a Christian university in Lynchburg, Va., over the school’s failure to disclose campus crime data, including reports of sexual assault.
Liberty agreed to pay the fine after it was found to have repeatedly violated the Clery Act, a federal statute that requires federally funded colleges and universities to report crime data on campus and notify students of threats. The unprecedented fine was a result of the Department of Education’s investigation that started in February 2022 after Title IX litigation was brought forward alleging Liberty discouraged female students from reporting sexual abuse.
The $14 million settlement is the largest fine ever imposed for Clery Act violations. Before this, Michigan State University received the highest recorded Clery Act fine of $4.5 million in 2019. The Department of Education levied this fine in response to the school’s failure to address the sexual abuse committed by Larry Nassar.
As part of the settlement agreement, Liberty will pay an additional $2 million to improve campus safety through April 2026. The university noted the hefty fine comes after it had already invested over $10 million in “significant advancements,” including enhanced security measures, since 2022, when the university settled a lawsuit brought by 12 women who claimed that the honor code made it “difficult or impossible” to report sexual assault.
While agreeing that “there were numerous deficiencies that existed in the past,” Liberty said it disagreed with the Department of Education’s biased approach in conducting the review.
“In the report, many of the Department’s methodologies, findings, and calculations were drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities. Liberty disagrees with this approach and maintains that we have repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the Department,” the university said in response to the judgment.
“We acknowledge and sincerely regret past program deficiencies and have since corrected these errors with great care and concern,” the statement continues. Such deficiencies, Liberty said, involve “incorrect statistical reports as well as necessary timely warnings and emergency notifications that were not sent.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes more than three years after Jerry Falwell Jr. was ousted from his post as president of the university over a lewd picture he posted of himself online, as well as reports of his wife’s extramarital affair with a younger man who said Falwell encouraged his wife in her infidelity.