Jeanne Clery was 19 years old when she was raped and murdered in her college dormitory. Her parents, Connie and Howard Clery, could not have known the danger she was in; standards for campus crime reporting simply did not exist in 1986.
So the Clerys put into motion transformative change on two important fronts.
On Capitol Hill, they lobbied for revolutionary policy changes that would eventually take form as the Jeanne Clery Act. Educators, families, and legislators could have an open dialogue about campus safety for the first time in our country’s history.
Connie and Howard also worked with allies and advocates to form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that would seek to prevent the kind of violence that had taken Jeanne from them. Today that organization, Clery Center, remains dedicated to guiding institutions of higher education to implement effective campus safety measures.
What We Do
Our mission: Working together with college and university communities to create safer campuses. When institutions of higher education seek guidance on campus safety regulation, they turn to Clery Center.
We are a national nonprofit dedicated to helping college and university officials meet the standards of the Jeanne Clery Act. By equipping professionals with the training and resources they need to understand compliance requirements, we strive to make campus safety a universal reality.
We support campuses via our Membership program, Clery Act Training Seminars, consulting, webinars, and free resources, many of which are created through our Initiatives and National Campus Safety Awareness Month. We also regularly engage with policymakers in hopes of driving systemic change on college campuses.
To learn more about Clery Center’s five-year strategic plan and priority areas, click here.
Our Values: Our organizational values distinguish not just what we do, but how we do it. They help guide our decision making, our culture, and our relationships. As a team we will strive to embody these values and to support each other in upholding them. We are:
Mission-driven: When faced with new opportunities or unexpected challenges we stay grounded in our purpose.
Collaborative: By building partnerships and working in teams we expand our reach and magnify our impact.
Authentic: We remain true to our core principles of respect and integrity in our daily communications and our service delivery.
Experienced: We recognize our collective expertise as an organization and our long history of excellence in the field.
Innovative: We challenge prevailing assumptions when warranted, adapt to evolving needs, and develop new approaches.
Inclusive: We strive to build a community that is diverse in thought, identity, and experience.
