Campus Security Authorities (CSA) are individuals and organizations at the College who, because of their function for the College, have an obligation under the Clery Act to notify the College of alleged Clery Act Crimes that are reported to them in good faith, or alleged Clery Act Crimes that they may personally witness.

• In “good faith” means there is a reasonable basis for believing that the information is not simply rumor or hearsay. That is, there is little or no reason to doubt the validity of the information.
• Under the Clery Act, a crime is “reported” when it is brought to the attention of a campus security authority or local law enforcement personnel by a victim, witness, other third party or even the offender. It doesn’t matter whether the individuals involved in the crime or reporting the crime are associated with the College.

Who is a CSA?

These individuals typically fall under one of the following categories:

• A member of a campus police/security department.
• Individuals have responsibility for campus security in some capacity but are not members of a campus police/security department.
• People or offices that are not members of a campus police/security department, but where policy directs individuals to report criminal offenses to them or their office.
• Officials have significant responsibility for student and campus activities, including but not limited to, student housing, student discipline and campus judicial proceedings.  Examples: Athletic Directors, Athletic Coaches, Faculty advisors to student organizations, Resident Assistants.

Who is not a CSA?

• When acting within the scope of the official responsibilities, Pastoral Counselors and Professional Counselors are not CSAs.
• Individuals who do not have significant responsibility for student and campus activities are not CSAs. Examples: faculty members not responsible for student and campus activities beyond the classroom, and clerical or cafeteria staff.

CSA Reporting Responsibilities

If a Campus Security Authority receives information of alleged Clery Act crime and believes it was provided in good faith, or personally witnesses an alleged Clery Act Crime, he or she should report the crime directly to the Public Safety and Health Department or via the CSA Incident Report Form.

The Campus Security Authority can refer to the Clery Crime Classification to assist in determining if the alleged crime is a Clery Act crime, as well as the definitions of Clery Act Crimes and Clery Act Geography.

Please note that it is NOT the role of the CSA to investigate the allegation to determine whether the crime occurred and/or confront or apprehend the alleged perpetrator of the crime.  That is the role of law enforcement.

How to Access CSA Training

Persons designated by the College as a Campus Security Authority (CSA) are required to complete Clery Act Training. Clery Act Training includes the history of the Clery Act, Clery Act requirements, and reporting responsibilities of the CSA.

Clery Act Training is available online. Please contact Public Safety for more information.

For those individuals that complete their training online, the training includes a post-test, which the individual must pass with a score of 80% to earn a Certificate of Completion.  If you have any trouble accessing the training site, please contact Public Safety.

If you need an accommodation or would like a copy of the transcript for the course, please contact PublicSafety@centralpenn.edu.

Should I Complete a CSA Incident Report?

• If Clery Reportable Location and Clery Act Crime, this is Clery Reportable and complete CSA Incident Reporting form if the Public Safety and Health Department were not involved.
• If no Clery Reportable Location and Clery Act Crime, this is not Clery Reportable and do not complete CSA Incident Reporting Form
• If Clery Reportable Location and no Clery Act Crime, this is not Clery Reportable and does not complete CSA Incident Reporting Form

Clery Reportable Locations

• On-Campus inside a Residence Hall or adjacent Commons Area
• On-Campus NOT inside a Residence Hall or adjacent Commons Area
• Non-Campus (Off Campus College owned or controlled to include fraternities/sororities, study abroad, and short stay-away trips)
• Public Property (Within or immediately adjacent to campus)

Clery Act Crimes

• Homicide (include negligent and non-negligent manslaughter)
• Aggravated Assault
• Rape
• Fondling
• Incest
• Statutory Rape
• Burglary
• Robbery
• Motor Vehicle Theft
• Arson
• Hate (above listed crimes and Theft, Simple Assault, Intimidation, Criminal Mischief)
• VAWA (Violence Against Women Act)
  • Domestic Violence
  • Dating Violence
  • Stalking
• Arrest or Referral for Disciplinary Action (Student Conduct) for violations of law concerning:
  • Weapons
  • Drugs
  • Alcohol (excluding public drunkenness and DUI)

Criminal Homicide

• Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter is the willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another.  This offense includes any death caused by injuries received in a fight, argument, quarrel, assault, or the commission of a crime.  This offense does NOT include traffic fatalities, suicides, accidental deaths, or justifiable homicide as defined by law.
• Manslaughter by negligence is the killing of another person through gross negligence. This offense includes any death caused by the gross negligence of another. This offense does NOT include death of persons due to their own negligence, accidental deaths not resulting from gross negligence, and traffic fatalities.

Aggravated Assault

• Aggravated Assault is an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury.  This type of assault is usually accompanied using a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.  Examples of Aggravated Assault include, but are not limited to, poisonings (including the use of date rape drugs), assault with disease (as in cases when the offender is aware that he or she is infected with a deadly disease and deliberately attempts to inflict the disease). If an attack results in broken bones, loss of consciousness or significant blood loss, or requires medical treatment or hospitalization, such as stitches or castings (regardless of whether the victim accepts such assistance), the incident must be classified as an Aggravated Assault.

Sexual Assault (Sex Offenses)

• Rape is the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus, with anybody part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim. This offense includes the rape of both males and females.
• Fondling is the touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
• Statutory Rape is sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.  If force was used or threatened, or if the victim was incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or temporary or permanent mental impairment, the offense is Rape, not Statutory Rape. In Pennsylvania, children less than 13 years old cannot grant consent to sexual activity. Teens between the ages of 13 and 15 cannot consent to sexual activity with anyone who is four or more years older than them.  People ages 16 and older can legally consent to sexual activity, so long as the other person does not have authority over them as defined in Pennsylvania’s institutional sexual assault statute.
• Incest is sexual intercourse between people who are related to each other within degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.

Burglary

• Burglary is the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft.  This includes all offenses that are classified by local law enforcement agencies as Burglary, as well as all offenses where force of any kind is used to unlawfully enter a structure for the purpose of committing a theft or felony; unlawful trespass of a structure with no force such as through an unlocked door or window for the purpose of committing a theft or felony; and attempted forcible entry where the totality of the facts indicate that a Burglary was in fact attempted.  Examples of offenses that are NOT classified as Burglary include thefts from automobiles, shoplifting, thefts from areas of open access, and robbery.

Robbery

• Robbery is the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.  To be classified as Robbery, the offense must be committed in the presence of the victim; the victim must be directly confronted by the perpetrator; the victim must be threatened with force or put in fear that force will be used; and the offense must involve a theft or larceny.

Motor Vehicle Theft

• Motor Vehicle Theft is the theft or attempted theft of any self-propelled motor vehicle that runs on a land surface and not on rails.  This offense includes all incidents where a vehicle is taken by person(s) not having lawful access even if the vehicle is later abandoned, such as “joyriding.”  This offense does NOT include theft of farm equipment, bulldozers, airplanes, construction equipment, or watercraft.

Arson

• Arson is any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.  Arson includes incidents where an individual willfully or maliciously burns his or her own property.  Accidental fires such as a cooking fire are not included in this offense.

Hate Crimes

A Hate Crime is criminal offense that manifests evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias against the victim.

Hate Crimes Bias Categories

Under the Clery Act, the possible bias categories are Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Gender, Gender Identity, Ethnicity, National Origin, Disability.

• Race: A preformed negative attitude toward a group of persons who possess common physical characteristics (e.g., color of skin, eyes, and/or hair; facial features, etc.), genetically transmitted by descent and heredity which distinguish them as a distinct division of humankind.
• Religion: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people who share the same religious beliefs regarding the origin and purpose of the universe and the existence or nonexistence of a supreme being.
• Sexual Orientation:A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.   Sexual Orientation is the term for a person’s physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to members of the same and/or opposite sex.
• Gender: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a person or group of persons based on their actual or perceived gender.
• Gender Identity: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a person or group of persons based on their actual or perceived gender identity (e.g., bias against transgender or gender non-conforming individuals).
• Ethnicity: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, common culture and/or ideology that stresses common ancestry. The concept of ethnicity differs from the closely related term “race” in that “race” refers to grouping based mostly upon biological criteria, while “ethnicity” also encompasses additional cultural factors.
• National Origin: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of people based on their actual or perceived country of birth.
• Disability: A preformed negative opinion or attitude toward a group of persons based on their physical or mental impairments, whether such disability is temporary or permanent, congenital, or acquired by heredity, accident, injury, advanced age, or illness.

Hate Crimes Offenses

For Clery purposes, Hate Crimes include any of the following offenses that are motivated by bias:

• Murder and Non-negligent Manslaughter, Sexual Assault (Sex Offenses), Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Burglary, Motor Vehicle Theft, Arson, Larceny-Theft, Simple Assault, Intimidation, Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property.
• Larceny (Theft), Simple Assault, Intimidation, and Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property are included in Clery Act statistics only if it is committed as a hate crime (motivated by the perpetrator’s bias against the victim based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin, and/or disability).
  • Larceny (Theft) is the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another.  Constructive possession is the condition in which a person does not have physical custody or possession but is able to exercise dominion or control over a thing.
  • Simple Assault is the unlawful physical attack by one person upon another where neither the offender displays a weapon, nor the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness.
  • Intimidation is to unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm by threatening words and/or other conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to actual physical attack.  This includes cyber-intimidation if the victim is threatened via electronic means while on campus, on public property immediately adjacent to campus, or on college owned, leased, or controlled space that is not on campus.
  • Destruction/Damage/Vandalism of Property is to destroy willfully or maliciously, damage, deface, or otherwise injure real or personal property without the consent of the owner or the person having custody or control of it.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT OFFENSES

Dating Violence

Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim.  The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on the reporting party’s statement and with consideration of the length of the relationship, the type of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.

• Dating Violence includes, but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse.
• Dating Violence does not include acts covered under the definition of domestic violence.

Domestic Violence

A felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by:

• a current or former spouse of intimate partner of the victim.
• a person with whom the victim shares a child in common.
• a person who is cohabiting with, or has cohabited with, the victim as a spouse or intimate partner.
• a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the authority in which the crime of violence occurred.
• any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the authority in which the crime of violence occurred.

Stalking

Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or suffer substantial emotional distress.

• Course of conduct means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person’s property.
• A reasonable person means a reasonable person under similar circumstances and with similar identities to the victim.
• Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or professional treatment or counseling.

Arrests and Referrals for Disciplinary Action

Under the Clery Act, institutions must report arrests and referrals for disciplinary action for liquor law violations, drug law violations, and illegal weapons possession.

• Arrest: Persons processed by arrest, citation, or summons.
• Referred for disciplinary action: The referral of any person to any official who initiates a disciplinary action of which a record is established, and which may result in the imposition of a sanction. This includes only alleged violations of law, not violations of your institution’s policies.

Liquor Law Violations

• Liquor Law Violations are defined as the violation of state or local laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages, not including driving under the influence and drunkenness.  This offense does include, amongst other violations, underage possession, furnishing liquor to a minor or intemperate person, using a vehicle for illegal transportation of liquor, and any attempts to commit these offenses.

Drug Law Violations

• Drug Law Violations are defined as the violation of laws prohibiting the production, distribution and/or use of certain controlled substances and the equipment or devices utilized in their preparation and/or use.  The unlawful cultivation, manufacture, distribution, sale, purchase, use, possession, transportation or importation of any controlled drug or narcotic substance.  Arrests for violations of state and local laws, specifically those relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs.  This offense includes illegally obtaining prescription drugs; however, it does NOT include use of legally obtained personal prescription drugs used by the owner in a manner that is not consistent with the instructions provided by the prescribing physician.

Weapon Law Violations

Weapon Law Violations are defined as the violation of laws or ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, concealment, or use of firearms, cutting instruments, explosives, incendiary devices, or other deadly weapons.  This classification encompasses weapons offenses that are regulatory in nature.

On-Campus

Any building or property owned or controlled by an institution within the same contiguous geographic area and used to meet or support the institution’s educational purposes, including residence halls, administrative buildings, and buildings that house classrooms/labs.

• Residence Halls – Any student housing facility that is owned or controlled by the institution or is located on property that is owned or controlled by the institution and is within the contiguous geographic area that makes up the campus is considered an on-campus student housing facility.

Also, any building or property that is within or reasonably contiguous to the area identified in the above paragraph, that is owned by the institution but controlled by another person, is frequently used by students, and used to support institutional purposes (such as food or other retail vendors and bookstores)

Public Property

All public property includes thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities, that are within campus, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus.

• Public property refers to property owned by a public entity, such as a city or state government.
• Accessible is defined as there is no barrier of any kind between campus border and public property or some type of barrier exists but frequently ignored by students (a fence or wall that students climb over, under or through).

Non-campus

Any building or property that is not part of the main campus nor a separate campus and is owned or controlled by the institution, used in support or relation to the institution’s educational purposes, and frequently used by students. Also, a building or property that is owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the institution, such as fraternity and sorority houses, are considered non-campus.

The Clery Act requires the College to collect, count, and report Clery Act crime statistics.  These forms are used to collect crime reports from campus security authorities and statistics for specific crimes that occur during college-sponsored trips at non-campus locations.

Click here to complete the Clery Incident Report Form.

The Campus Security Authority (CSA) Incident Report is to document as much of the requested information on the form, excluding identity if confidentiality is requested, as s/he knows. The awareness can come from a direct report from a victim or witness or from a third party. The Public Safety and Health Department will use the submitted information to verify the appropriate classification of the crime.

The College has made many resources available to victims/witnesses of crime at no cost. If you would like to learn more about these resources, have any questions, or would like assistance completing this form please contact the, Public Safety and Health Department, at (717) 728-2364.

Click here to access the report form.

Timely Warnings are Clery Act required notifications that go out to the entire College Community to alert of a potential or ongoing threat of a Clery Reportable Offense.

Emergency Notifications go out to the entire College Community when there is a significant emergency or dangerous situation currently occurring on or immediately threatening campus.

Central Penn Alert is Central Penn’s emergency notification system. Situations/incidents that the college considers a crime and pose an ongoing threat to students and employees are quickly brought to the attention of the campus community through this system. Central Penn Alert can include, but is not limited to, a combination of voice and text messages, emails, messages on Central Penn’s main telephone number and home page, www.centralpenn.edu, and posts on the College’s official social media sites.

Students, faculty, and staff can register to receive notifications via text message, email, or phone call in the event of a Blackboard Day, delay, or emergency. Register for this system by visiting the student portal (My.CentralPenn.edu).

Campus Locations

• Summerdale, Pennsylvania
• Lancaster, Pennsylvania