Biden Administration Hammers Major Christian University with Record-Breaking Fine
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Liberty University is crying foul after the Biden administration fined it $14 million.
The record fine came after the Department of Education alleged that the Virginia-based Christian university failed to disclose information about crime on campus, including sexual assaults, according to the Associated Press earlier this month.
The agreement said Liberty agreed to pay the $14 million fine and to pay $2 million toward campus safety improvement.
The agreement noted that Liberty is subject to a two-year period of post-agreement monitoring.
The Biden Administration doesn’t bother to even camouflage its weaponization of the apparatus of government to punish its enemies. Wow.
Liberty University fined a record $14 million for violating campus safety law – The Washington Post https://t.co/PnWVyZe6fi
— Jeff Gremillion (@JeffGremillion) March 5, 2024
In its final report assessing compliance under the Clery Act, which requires colleges to report crimes that take place on campus, honed in on the college’s treatment of sexual assault complaints between 2016 and 2022.
“The Department has determined that victims of sexual crime that occur on the University’s Clery Geography are often fearful of reporting their incidents. For instance, the Department has found that numerous victims of sexual assault have been reluctant to speak up about their assaults because of fear of reprisal,” the report said.
“In fact, over the course of this review period, several sexual assault victims were punished for violating the student code of conduct known as ‘The Liberty Way,’ while their assailants were left unpunished,” the report said.
“Consequently, victims of sexual assault often felt dissuaded by Liberty administration’s reputation for punishing sexual assault survivors rather than helping them. Such fears created a culture of silence where sexual assaults commonly went unreported,” the report said.
In other cases, the report said Liberty did not properly break down and report cases of sexual assault by the Department of Education’s categories that separate rape, fondling and dating violence.
The college said in its response that the seven-year review was more extensive than any other college underwent.
“Many of the Department’s methodologies, findings, and calculations in the report were drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities. Liberty disagrees with this unfair treatment,” the college said.
The college noted than since 2022, it has spent more than $10 million on safety-related improvements on the campus.
“While the university maintains that we have repeatedly endured selective and unfair treatment by the Department, the university also concurs there were numerous deficiencies that existed in the past,” the college said.
At the same time, the biggest Christian Universities in America —Grand Canyon University and Liberty University are being fined $37 million each by the Biden administration. #BidenCorruption @gcu #LibertyUniversity https://t.co/jSXaJGIovm
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 22, 2023
Liberty has an on-campus population of about 15,000 students, the AP reported.
Liberty is not the only Christina university under fire from the Biden administration.
The Department of Education hit Arizona’s Grand Canyon University with a $37.7 million fine on Oct. 31 and has followed that with a Federal Trade commission investigation of the college.
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