Community Safety Admin Coordinator Kathy Silke Talks Clery Act Enforcement Changes

At the beginning of this academic year, many student workers were notified that they are now Campus Security Authorities (CSAs). CSA is a designation created by the 1990 Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, more succinctly the Clery Act or 20 U.S.C. 1092(f). It requires colleges involved in federal financial aid programs to collect and disclose information about a specific subset of crimes, referred to as Clery reportable crimes.

Just after spring break, the Quest interviewed Kathy Silke, Community Safety Administrative Coordinator and Clery Compliance Officer. Silke has been the Community Safety Administrative Coordinator for some time but was only recently appointed as the Clery Compliance Officer. On the new position, Silke said, ”Since [starting], the college has put me through…an 18-month course that makes you certified as a compliance professional with the Clery laws.” She explained that although the responsibilities are being ”newly enforced,” these responsibilities have always been required by law. ”We did not have the administrative capability to enforce it earlier,” she said.

The newly enforced CSA responsibilities cover a broad range of positions. ”The person who sits in the cage hands you a towel, if you need one, and makes sure you’ve swiped in correctly for the Sports Center. They’re a CSA because they control access to a building on campus.” The Clery Act names several additional roles, such as Housing Advisors, that are specifically designated as CSAs.

Some students expressed concerns that the new reporting requirements would compromise the ability of HAs and Night Owls to serve as peer mediators. On this, Silke said ”A CSA can send in a report that can be de-identified. The nice thing about Clery is that it doesn’t want names.” CSAs may de-identify reports at their discretion but are not currently provided with guidelines for when to de-identify reports.

Additionally, CSAs are not required to investigate suspected Clery reportable crimes, only ones they know to have happened while they are on duty. ”If you’re not on duty as an HA you’re not on duty as a CSA, you have to be acting in your role to be an active CSA. If an HA is on duty, and they happen to overhear something walking through the hallway, ’Oh, I smoked some good pot tonight or whatever, or I was assaulted.’ Right? Those are both Clery crimes according to the DoE. That’s not being reported to them as a Clery crime. They do not have to report it.” Residence Life did not respond for comment on when HAs are considered to be on duty. Finally, Silke clarified that Clery reports are not punitive, and would not interfere with medical amnesty. ”If they call because they’re concerned for their friend, that will count for Clary because it will be logged in the system that we responded [to] a medical call for some form of drug or alcohol. But according to Reed’s medical amnesty policy, [it is] most likely that students [are] not going to have any sort of an... AOD type thing handed down.”