Clery Liaisons

The University of Illinois Springfield needs the assistance from all departments to best comply with the federal mandates of the Clery Act.  

The UIS Police Department relies on Clery Liaisons from each department to identify employees who may be Campus Security Authorities; buildings and property outside the Springfield campus that the department uses frequently for teaching or student activities; and students’ university-sponsored or sanctioned overnight trips away from campus.

The Clery Center - CSA Training Video

About this training 

As a Clery liaison for your unit or department, you have three primary responsibilities: 

• Identifying Campus Security Authorities (CSAs) in your unit 
• Reporting your unit’s non-campus property 
• Reporting university-sponsored travel     

You can and should report these items regularly as they change throughout the year.

This training describes your responsibilities in more detail. Should you have any questions, you can contact the Clery Compliance Coordinator at Clery@uis.edu or by calling the UIS Police Department non-emergency line at 217-206-6690. 

What is the Clery Act, and what is a Clery liaison? 

“Clery” refers to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act which is a federal mandate requiring all institutions of higher education that participate in the federal student financial aid program to disclose information about crime on their campuses and in the surrounding communities. 

There is a difference between a Clery liaison and a Campus Security Authority (CSA). A Clery liaison is a role mandated by campus policy to report required information for their units and assist the university with compliance. A CSA is a person who is required by the federal law to report certain crimes to University Police. The Clery Center CSA training video linked above from the main campus UIUC mediaspace webpage details the responsibilities of a CSA, not a Clery liaison — but it is nonetheless important to understand the responsibilities of a CSA so you can better understand your responsibilities as a Clery liaison for your department. 

Why was the Clery Act implemented? 

Jeanne Clery was tragically raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University in 1986. The law enacted in her memory is intended to ensure that students and others are informed about violent campus crimes so they can make informed decisions. The Clery Act requires universities to report crime statistics to current and prospective students and employees. 

Clery Act requirements 

The requirements are to: 

• Collect, classify, and count reports and statistics related to crime 
• Issue timely warnings and campus alerts for Clery crimes that represent an ongoing threat to the safety of students or employees 
• Publish an Annual Security and Fire Safety Report and distribute to all current students and employees 
• Submit crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education 
• Maintain daily crime and fire logs 
• Disclose missing student notification procedures 
• Disclose fire safety information related to on-campus student housing 

Clery Act compliance procedures at UIS 

General Responsibilities: 

1. Students, employees, and visitors are encouraged to promptly and accurately report all suspected crimes and significant emergencies or dangerous situations occurring on On-Campus Property, Non-campus Property, and Public Property to the UIS Police Department or the appropriate law enforcement agency, when the victim of a crime elects to, or is unable to, make such a report. 
2. For the purpose of making timely warning reports to the community and for inclusion in the annual statistical disclosure, Clery Act crimes should be reported to the UIS Police Department or another Campus Security Authority. 
3. For the sole purpose of the inclusion of a Clery Act crime in the annual disclosure of crime statistics, victims or witnesses may report crimes to a Campus Security Authority on a voluntary, confidential basis, by withholding their personally identifiable information. 
4. Professional Counselors are encouraged, if and when deemed appropriate, to inform the persons they are counseling of any procedures to report crimes on a voluntary, confidential basis for inclusion in the annual disclosure of crime statistics. 
5. All campus units and divisions must maintain for seven (7) years all Clery Act-related documentation in accordance with the State Records Commission approved “Application for Authority to Dispose of State Records 13-41 Student Records Retention Schedule.” 
6. All campus units and divisions must provide a contact name to the UIS Police Department to serve as a “Clery Liaison.” The Clery Liaison shall be responsible for providing the following information: 

• Identifying and registering Campus Security Authorities (“CSAs”) within the unit/division; 
• Registering all Noncampus Property used by the unit/division; 
• Registering specific locations used for accommodations (e.g., hotel, inn, hostel) where students go on overnight university-sponsored travel.
• Entering such information online using the forms at the top of the page.

View the add a CSA, update Clery geography, and student overnight travel forms above.

Identifying department CSAs 

Who is a CSA? 

The law defines four categories of CSAs: 

1. UIS Police Department sworn personnel and department administrators 

2. Non-police people of offices responsible for campus security. These CSAs have security presence or access control authority on university property. For example: 

• student ID checkers for Campus Recreation (Facility Managers) 

3. Officials with significant responsibility for student and campus activities. To help determine these people, consider their job function that involve relationships with students. An official is defined as any person who has the authority and the duty to take action or respond to particular issues on behalf of the University. Examples: 

• Deans 
• Student Affairs Professionals 
• Student Housing staff (R.A.s, R.D.s) 
• Athletic Director/Assistant Directors/Coaches (including part-time employees and graduate assistants) 
• Student Activities Coordinators 
• Title IX Coordinator  
• Faculty/Staff advisors to student organizations 
• Director of Health Center/ Admin Nurses 
• Victim Advocates or others who are responsible for providing victims with advocacy services 
• Faculty/Staff who lead overnight University sponsored student travel 

4. 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. 

*Note: UIS identifies CSAs, and the Title IX Coordinator as someone else you can report crimes to. They are already included as a CSA. 

Who is not a CSA? 

Anyone who does not fall into the above categories is not a CSA. Examples: 

• Administrative and clerical staff members who are NOT responsible for students 
• A professional staff member who supervises student employees but does not fall into the any of the above categories is NOT a CSA. 
• Individual faculty with NO student activity duties outside the classroom 
• Doctors at the Health Center 
• Counselors in the Counseling Center who ONLY provide care to individual students 

Notifying UIS Police of your department CSAs 

You can complete the campus security authorities form to inform UIS Police of a CSA in your department.

Reviewing the CSA list 

You will be asked to review your department’s CSA list twice per year. Typically, the Clery liaison will receive an email in February and September prompting you to review the list. You can and should add CSAs any time throughout the year. The web form is available all the time. 

How to remove a CSA from your department’s list

If a CSA leaves your unit, you do not have to wait until February or September to update the list. Send an email to clery@uis.edu and their name will be removed from the list (include the date of separation and the name and start date of the employee who is replacing them in the position, if one exists). 

Notifying CSAs of their status 

Once you enter someone’s name as a CSA, the Compliance Coordinator will notify them of their status and responsibilities via email. This email will have the link to the required training. The online training takes approximately 30-35 minutes to complete. The training should be completed within the first two weeks of receiving the email. Reminders will be sent to the CSA until training is complete. After two reminders have been sent, you as the Clery Liaison will be notified in order to help that CSA complete the training. 

Reporting non-campus property 

What is non-campus property? 

Non-campus Property is defined as, “Any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution; or Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution that is used in direct support of, or in relation to, the institution’s educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of the institution.” 

How to report non-campus property 

Clery liaisons should report any non-campus property owned or controlled by their unit using this property registration form. The form is available throughout the year in the Clery liaison section of this website. 

I report all of my property used through Real Estate and the Contracts Office. Do I still need to report it? 

No. University Police work with Facilities and Services, the Real Estate Office, Certified Housing, and Contracts Office to gather information on University owned and controlled properties on an annual basis. If you already have a lease or agreement in place, this location will be captured by the above entities. 

Reporting study abroad program locations 

If the University sends students to study abroad at an institution we do NOT own or control, we do not have to disclose statistics for crimes that occur in those facilities. If the University RENTS or LEASES space for our students at these institutions, these facilities must be reported. 

This form is used for a semester or year long program where we control property. Anything shorter would be considered “travel.” 

If the University has a contract with a third-party vendor acting on behalf of the University to arrange housing, these locations specific to our students must be reported. 

Typically, host family housing is NOT included unless there is a written agreement giving the University significant control over a specified area of the home. 

University-sponsored travel for students 

What is the criteria used to determine when a trip must be reported? 

University-sponsored travel means that the university makes the travel arrangements (i.e. has the agreement with the hotel). If a student is making his/her own arrangements and chooses their own hotel/lodging, then this travel would not count. 

Additionally, the duration of travel must be overnight or longer (day trips, or non-overnight travel do not need to be reported). 

Also note that this is student travel and not faculty/staff. Graduate student travel must be reported. 

How to report university-sponsored travel 

Clery liaisons should report any university-sponsored travel using this overnight student travel form. The form is available throughout the year in the Clery liaison section of this website. 

What if the student is paying for the travel and just getting reimbursed by the department? 

The question of who makes the arrangements weighs more heavily in this decision. If the student chooses their own hotel and makes the arrangements themselves, then this travel would not be reportable. 

If the unit (UIS) makes the arrangements and has a contract, written agreement or reservation with the lodging, then this travel would be reportable. For example, when a unit uses their T-card to arrange a hotel for a grad student, this is a reportable location. 

Reimbursements made after-the-fact are not reportable. 

What does UIS Police do with this information? 

At the end of each calendar year, we compile the list of locations where our students traveled, and then identify the law enforcement jurisdiction that has authority over each location. We are required to send this law enforcement agency a letter requesting Clery-reportable crime statistics for this specific location, for the time period that our students were there, and then include these stats in our annual disclosure. 

Example: Students stayed at 1234 S. Smith Road, Atlanta, GA, for 5 nights. This is a reportable trip sponsored by the university. We send a letter to the Atlanta Police Department asking for the number of Clery crimes at this specific location for the time period our students were staying there. If they report a robbery occurred here during that time frame, we add one robbery to our non-campus statistics. 

I’m not sure I have any information to report. Is this normal? 

Not all campus units will have information that needs to be reported or anyone who fits the definition of a CSA. Every campus unit does, however, need to identify a Clery liaison who we can contact in the event that the law or procedures change. We will reach out to you regularly to keep you informed on the changing requirements of the Clery Act so that you can keep up with reporting accurate information from your unit. 

Questions? 

Contact the Clery Compliance Coordinator at any time by emailing clery@uis.edu or by calling the UIS Police Department non-emergency line at 217-206-6690.