Date of Award

2018

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

College

College of Education and Professional Development

Type of Degree

Ed.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Barbara Nicholson

Second Advisor

Feon Smith-Branch

Third Advisor

Michael Cunningham

Fourth Advisor

Beverly Jo Harris

Abstract

More than 25 years after its enactment, colleges are still finding themselves failing to comply with Clery Act reporting mandates. With each amendment to the Clery Act and its associated policies, the trend has been to add to the list of reportable items, which only increases the difficulty of institutional compliance. The purpose of this non-experimental, descriptive study was to evaluate employee awareness of the Clery Act and its current Clery Act reporting requirements at varying employment strata within West Virginia’s nine community and technical colleges. Using a web-based survey, data showed that approximately one-fourth of survey participants had never heard of the Clery Act. Mean Clery Act Reporting Awareness Scores were calculated for each institutional stratum and levels of awareness were ranked using a researcher defined point scale. Awareness score data suggests that the overall level of awareness for Clery Act reporting requirements fell within the Very Low Awareness score range. West Virginia community college administrators may have cause for concern. With Clery Act compliance violation fines set at an all-time high of $54,789 per violation, understanding where potential breaches in compliance may be found should be a matter of primary concern for all higher education administrators whose colleges participate in Title IV federal funding programs. While many community and technical colleges, like their four-year counterparts, participate in Title IV funding programs, less is known about their compliance practices. To determine if community college employees are aware of the Clery Act and its reporting requirements, administrators need to evaluate employee awareness of reporting requirements across all institutional strata. Identifying potential Clery Act reporting breaches could save institutions thousands of dollars in noncompliance fines.

Subject(s)

United States. Dept. of Education -- Evaluation.

Campus violence -- United States -- Statistics.

Universities and colleges -- Security measures -- Evaluation.

College students -- Crimes against -- Statistics.

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