Penn State announced today that is officially accepting the $2.4 million fine levied by the Department of Education for the universities’ violations of the Clery Act. President Barron penned a message to the community to update that administrators have finished combing through the 239-page report and accepted the fines.

“As the Department of Education was compiling its final report, we appreciated the opportunity to provide context and perspective where we disagreed with the findings,” Barron said in the message. “Despite that, we have accepted the fines and will continue to focus on our ongoing Clery compliance.”

The $2.4 million fine from the Department of Education is the largest ever levied for violations failure to report campus safety and crime statistics related to the Clery Act. The university was given until Friday to accept or contest the findings and fine, but despite disagreeing with some of the findings as Barron said, Penn State has chosen to accept the fines in their entirety.

The violations — totaling 11 — were taken from a 14-year span from 1998 to 2011, which included the allegations against Jerry Sandusky. The Sandusky violations were only a small percentage of the fines however, as the Department of Education looked at all aspects of Penn State’s failure to comply with the Clery Act in that time. Only $27,500 of the fines came from crimes directly related to Sandusky.

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Lexi Shimkonis

Lexi is an editor-turned-staff writer who can often be found at either Irving's or the Phyrst (with the chances she'll have her backpack being the same). Lexi is a senior hailing from Spring City, PA (kind of) and studying Civil Engineering. Please email questions and/or pleas for an Instagram caption to lexi@onwardstate.com, or for a more intimate bond, follow her on Twitter @lexshimko.

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