Overview
Salem State University (SSU) was established by Section 5 of Chapter 15A of the Massachusetts General Laws. SSU operates under the direction of an 11-person board of trustees, consisting of one student member elected by the student body, one alumni member elected by the alumni association, and nine members who are appointed by the Governor.
According to SSU’s website,
The board is charged with the fiduciary management of the institution, including determination of fees, establishment of personnel management policy, staff services, and the general business of the institution. Among its responsibilities, the board elects the president with the approval of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, adopts an annual plan of financial operation, awards degrees in approved fields, and develops the mission statement for the university consistent with the mission of the Commonwealth’s system of public higher education.
According to its website, SSU’s mission is the following:
[SSU] prepares students of diverse backgrounds and interests to achieve their educational and career goals and to contribute to a global society as ethical and engaged community members. As a public university, [SSU] also makes critical contributions to civic life, environmental sustainability, and the cultural, social, and economic vitality of the North Shore region.
SSU is a member of the Massachusetts public higher education system, which consists of 15 community colleges, nine state universities, and five University of Massachusetts campuses. Founded in 1854, SSU is an accredited public institution that offers 32 undergraduate and 24 graduate programs. As of fall 2022, SSU had a total of 6,539 students, including 5,078 undergraduates and 1,461 graduates, and 1,320 employees.
In fiscal year 2021, SSU had operating revenues of $94,150,699 and nonoperating revenues (state appropriation, federal assistance, and investment income) of $82,992,599. In fiscal year 2022, SSU had operating revenues of $99,415,616 and nonoperating revenues of $87,592,138.
Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act
As a participant in federal student financial aid programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, SSU is required to comply with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). The Clery Act is a federal law that requires institutions to disclose campus crime statistics and other related security information in the form of an annual security report (ASR) to students and the public. The Clery Act was initially enacted as Title II of the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, which was signed into law as an amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965. In 1998, this law was amended and renamed the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act in memory of a student who was raped and murdered in her dormitory at Lehigh University. In 2013, the act was amended to include statistics, policies, and programs related to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The purpose of the Clery Act is to improve transparency and accountability in campus safety. Institutions covered by the Clery Act must comply with specific requirements outlined in the Clery Act Appendix for the Federal Student Aid Handbook,1 including those listed in the table below.
Clery Act Requirements—The Basics
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Source: The 2020 Clery Act Appendix for the Federal Student Aid Handbook
The US Department of Education (US DOE) conducts compliance reviews and audits to ensure that all higher education institutions receiving federal funds adhere to the Clery Act and imposes fines on institutions that do not comply.
Daily Crime Log
All institutions of higher education with campus security or police departments, and which are subject to the Clery Act, must maintain a daily crime log of all crimes reported to them and any crimes that have occurred within an institution’s Clery geography. Clery geography includes buildings and property that are part of an institution’s campus (e.g., residence halls, classroom buildings, or cafeterias); an institution’s noncampus buildings and property (e.g., institution-owned bookstores located off campus, apartment buildings owned or controlled by the institution, and fraternity- and sorority-owned chapter houses); and public property within or immediately adjacent to and accessible from an institution’s campus (e.g., public streets, sidewalks, and parking lots). The SSU Police Department (SSUPD) maintains, controls, and monitors SSU’s daily crime log. (See Appendix A for a map of SSU’s Clery geography.)
According to the Clery Act, “The institution must make the crime log for the most recent 60-day period open to public inspection during normal business hours . . . [and] make any portion of the log older than 60 days available within two business days of a request for public inspection.”
Clery Act crimes fall into four categories: (1) criminal offenses, such as murder, rape, statutory rape, robbery, or arson; (2) arrests and disciplinary action referrals for liquor law violations, drug law violations, or illegal weapon possession; (3) hate crimes, such as intimidation or simple assault motivated by bias; and (4) Violence Against Women Act offenses, which include domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking (see Apependix B). These crimes must be recorded based on the Clery geography categories of on-campus, noncampus buildings or property, or public property. SSU students, employees, and visitors report crimes that occur within SSU’s Clery geography to SSUPD or a campus security authority (CSA) (see the "Crime Reporting" section of this report).
CSAs
According to No. 202 of Volume 79 of the Federal Register, dated October 20, 2014, CSA is a term used to define “an official of an institution who has significant responsibility for student and campus activities, including, but not limited to, student housing, student discipline, and campus judicial proceedings.” CSAs are required to report any Clery Act crimes to their campus security or police department,2 such as SSUPD, regardless of whether the victim or witness decides to report it.
According to Section 668.46(a) of Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the following individuals meet the criteria for CSA:
- A campus police department or a campus security department of an institution.
- Any individual who has responsibility for campus security but does not constitute a campus police or a campus security department . . . such as an individual who is responsible for monitoring entrance into institutional property.
- Any individual or organization specified in an institution’s statement of campus security policy as an individual or organization to which students and employees should report criminal offenses.
- An official of an institution who has significant responsibility for student and campus activities, including, but not limited to, student housing, student discipline, and campus judicial proceedings.
SSU’s definition of CSAs, included in its ASRs, also include positions such as a director of athletics, team coaches, student resident assistants, and coordinators of Greek Life as CSAs. US DOE relies on an institution’s policies and procedures to correctly identify and notify CSAs of their responsibilities.
SSUPD is responsible for identifying CSAs, notifying CSAs of their responsibilities on an ongoing basis, and training CSAs annually. According to SSU officials, in 2015, SSU had a formal process for identifying CSAs, in which the SSUPD chief of police reviewed a list of employees and job titles to determine which individuals met the definition of a CSA and should have been required to attend SSUPD’s CSA training. The SSUPD police captain then reviewed the list to confirm those determinations. However, according to the interim SSUPD chief of police, neither the SSUPD chief of police or the SSUPD police captain followed this process during the audit period; further, the process was discounted because of issues with employee shortages and time commitments. SSUPD’s chief of police provides multiple in-person CSA trainings at least annually. These CSA trainings are conducted using Microsoft PowerPoint presentations that are tailored to SSU CSAs based on their positions. The presentations cover the history and purpose of the Clery Act, various levels of Clery Act crimes, and methods of reporting these crimes. Attendees of SSUPD’s CSA training mark their attendance on dated sign-in sheets.
ASR
Institutions of higher education subject to the Clery Act are required to publish an ASR that provides accurate information on campus crime statistics and security-related details for the three most recent calendar years. Institutions of higher education compile the crime statistics in accordance with definitions provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for use in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The table below details information that institutions of higher education must include in their ASRs in accordance with the Clery Act.
Required Contents of the ASR
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Source: The 2020 Clery Act Appendix for the Federal Student Aid Handbook
This report must be distributed to the entire campus community, including employees and current and prospective students, by October 1 of each year. The campus safety survey administrator must also submit the Clery Act crime statistics within the ASR to US DOE annually. SSU electronically submits campus crime statistics to US DOE, publishes its ASR on its website, and notifies SSU’s campus community of the report through email annually.
Crime Reporting
SSU students, employees, and visitors may report alleged incidents, suspicious activities, or emergencies by contacting SSUPD in person or by telephone, or by reporting them to a different CSA. According to the Clery Act, a crime is considered reported when any person, including the victim, a witness, a third party, or an offender brings it to the attention of SSUPD, a different CSA, or a local law enforcement agency.
SSUPD is a fully operational police department with jurisdiction over the campus. SSUPD is equipped to handle the same types of crimes that municipal police agencies in cities or towns handle.3 All SSUPD police officers attend full-time police academies operated by the Municipal Police Training Committee and are certified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Police Officer Standards and Training Commission. When a person on SSU’s campus calls for emergency services, the call goes to the Public Safety Answering Point in Middleton, which then redirects the call to a local law enforcement agency, which in this case is the Salem Police Department (SPD). Because SPD does not have jurisdiction over SSU geography, it transfers the call to SSUPD.
When SSUPD receives a notification of an alleged incident, its dispatcher creates a record of the report in SSUPD’s case management system. The alleged incident is automatically assigned a case number, while the SSUPD dispatcher manually enters the location of the incident, the incident type, and the details of the alleged incident. When needed, the dispatcher assigns an SSUPD police officer to investigate the alleged incident. SSUPD’s police captain marks a Clery Act checkbox in the case management system when an incident is determined to be a Clery Act crime. Marking the Clery Act checkbox helps SSU generate Clery Offense Reports, which are generic reports created by SSUPD’s case management system that provides a summarized list and counts of all Clery Act crimes for SSUPD to accurately report Clery Act crime statistics in SSU’s ASR.
If an individual, who is a CSA, from either the Resident Life or Student Life Departments witnesses or receives a report of an incident related to prohibited conduct (which may or may not be related to a crime), they are required to submit an incident report through SSU’s disciplinary action records management system.4 Individuals can also report incidents or concerns to SSU’s Resident Life or Student Life Departments through SSU’s website (see Appendix C). The reporter must provide their contact information, along with the date, time, and location of the alleged incident, information about the involved parties, the type of alleged prohibited conduct, and details of the alleged incident. SSU’s disciplinary action record management system automatically forwards the incident reports to relevant employees responsible for resident life, student conduct, campus Title IX5 compliance, athletics, academic integrity, etc., who determine whether a case should be opened. If a case is opened, the appropriate department is responsible for initiating an investigation and sanctioning and disciplining the involved parties.
SSU’s disciplinary action records management system provides a standardized report, called a Clery Report, that summarizes and counts incidents that must be reported under the Clery Act. On an annual basis, SSU’s associate dean of students generates the Clery Report and provides it to SSUPD, which uses the report to compile SSU’s ASR.
Every year, SSUPD requests that SPD6 provide statistical information about Clery Act crimes that occurred at specific off-campus properties that SSU owns or controls (SSUPD has jurisdiction over properties within its Clery geography), in addition to public areas within or close to the campus that are easily accessible from campus. An SSUPD employee uses this information from SPD, the Clery Offense Report from SSUPD’s case management system, and the Clery Report from SSU’s disciplinary action records management system to create SSU’s ASR. SSU publishes its completed ASR on its website annually.
According to SSUPD, during or around August of each year, US DOE sends a letter to SSU’s president and SSUPD’s chief of police that includes information on how to access US DOE’s Campus Safety and Security Survey website. Through this website, SSUPD’s chief of police submits crime statistics for the three most recent calendar years to US DOE.
| Date published: | November 4, 2024 |
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