Liberty University, the evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, has agreed to pay a record $14 million fine for violating federal campus security laws, the Department of Education announced Tuesday, accusing the school of creating a “culture of silence” that discouraged reporting. of crimes and repeated mishandling of sexual assaults.
In a 108-page report, the department found particular problems with the way the university handled sexual misconduct, including the fact that it had punished several sexual assault victims for violating the student honor code, which prohibits relationships. premarital sex, without punishing their attackers. As a result, sexual assaults typically went unreported, the department said.
The report also says Liberty discouraged staff members from sending emergency notifications and failed to notify students about dangerous events such as bomb threats on campus and gas leaks. And he accused the university of publicly aggrandizing itself as one of the safest universities in the country while maintaining little data on campus crime and providing statistics it could not back up with official records.
The move is the latest blow to the reputation of Liberty, which was founded by conservative pastor and political activist Jerry Falwell Sr. and has grown to become one of the country’s most prominent evangelical institutions, with a sprawling campus and an endowment. of more than 2 dollars. billion. Falwell’s son, Jerry Falwell Jr., resigned as president in 2020 amid a sex scandal, and the following year was sued by the university for $40 million in damages for several breaches of contract.
Tuesday’s penalty, which eclipsed all previous fines the department had imposed for such violations, is part of a settlement agreement with the university after a review by the department revealed “material and continuing violations” of the Clery Act . The law requires schools that participate in federal financial aid programs to report data on campus crime and support victims of sexual assault.
In addition to the fine, the university agreed to spend $2 million over two years to maintain a compliance committee and make improvements to campus security. The department said it would monitor the university until April 2026.
“The $14 million fine and other corrective actions imposed in this settlement reflect the serious and long-standing nature of Liberty’s violations, which undermined campus safety for students, faculty and staff,” the department said in a statement.
In a statement posted online, the university acknowledged many of the violations cited by the Department of Education during the seven-year period it reviewed, but said the school had been singled out and scrutinized much more aggressively than other institutions.
“While the university maintains that we have repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the department, the university also agrees that numerous deficiencies existed in the past,” the statement said. “We recognize and regret these past failures and have taken these necessary improvements seriously.”
The department’s review, which began in 2022, came on the heels of a lawsuit in which a total of 22 women joined a lawsuit against Liberty University. Some of the women said they were raped or suffered sexual violence due to lax policies and a culture that discouraged reporting sexual misconduct.
The Department of Education is in the final stages of introducing new rules on sexual misconduct, redefining the provisions of Title IX, a 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in federally funded schools.
Those changes are expected to extend stronger protections to victims of sexual assault on college campuses, undoing rules put in place under the Trump administration that offered more deference to students accused of sexual misconduct to defend themselves.
In imposing the fine Tuesday, the department went far beyond previous Clery Act sanctions that arose in response to high-profile cases involving widespread sexual assault perpetrated by university staff members against students.
The fine eclipsed the record $4.5 million penalty imposed on Michigan State University in 2019 for sexual abuse by Lawrence G. Nassar. Nassar was convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women while serving as a longtime sports doctor for student athletes at a Michigan State University clinic.
It also far exceeded the $2.4 million raised against Penn State following the conviction of Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach, for sexually abusing 10 boys.