Clery Trip Form FAQs
  1. 1st Section: Faculty/Staff Contact Information: This should be completed by a university employee, not the student. As the submitter, put your name, the university department represented during the trip, your phone number, and your email address. We need it so we can contact you if we have follow-up questions.
  2. 2nd Section: Lodging/Location Information: (location includes off-campus classrooms, performance venues, practice fields, etc.)
    1. The lodging/location name, street address, and city are required for identification in University Police’s request to the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of it.
    2. Clery requires that included in the statistics are any crimes that occur in the rooms used by students and in any common areas used to access the rooms (lobby, elevators, etc.). [When room numbers are missing, University Police must request crime statistics for the entire lodging.]
  3. 3rd Section: Law Enforcement Agency having jurisdiction over the location listed above – this is the agency that will receive University Police’s request for crime statistics. There are several ways to get this info:
    1. The traveler asks the front desk staff when checking in.
    2. The traveler or the department Googles it by searching on “police department” and the zip code for the lodging.
    3. The traveler or the department contacts the lodging and asks.
 

Clery compliance involves the campus community. Obtaining that info at the time of travel or shortly after may take a couple of minutes. Many hands make light work, and University Police receives hundreds of trip forms.

 

Please submit one online form for each location.

 

No. University Police handles it. (Each law enforcement agency receives a letter from University Police explaining the Clery off-campus student trip reporting requirements, a Clery reportable crimes definition sheet that includes categories of hate crime bias, and a spreadsheet with the trip form information and a section for the agency to fill in the crime statistics.)

 


Yes. SUNY New Paltz has numerous departments. The only way to determine if a lodging might be a repeated use of a location is if all departments submit student trip forms to University Police.

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

If the institution did not make the hotel reservation and does not have any kind of written agreement with a third party to arrange for the hotel reservation, and students have arranged and paid for the hotel themselves, it would not be under the control of the institution. Did the institution have any part in arranging for the space? If not, or if the institution only recommended the space, the institution would not be in control.

[If all the conditions in the Clery Help Desk response above are met, then a trip form is not needed.]

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

Do you have an agreement for a specific camp site? If so, the area/campsite specified in the agreement would be under the institution’s control. If there are common restrooms or other facilities that are available to your students as part of your written agreement to use the campsite, these areas should also be included.

[This means a Clery trip form is required.]

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

If your students are using the park without any written agreement, or your written agreement with the park provides your institution with access to the park but no control of a specific space, then no, your institution is not in control of any space. For example, if your students are hiking a trail and set up a tent along the way without arranging for the use of a specific campsite, the area where students camp for the night is not under your institution’s control for Clery Act purposes.

[If all the conditions in the Clery Help Desk response above are met, then a trip form is not needed.]

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

Yes, through the conference registration the institution has a written agreement with a third party (the conference) to provide housing. The housing arranged for by the third party on your behalf is in the institution’s control.

[This means a Clery trip form is required.]

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

Regarding reimbursements, presumably there is some pre-existing agreement, approval, or understanding between the institution and the students that the institution will reimburse the students for whatever arrangements the students make (campsite or lodging), either fully or partially, as part of their “travel expenses”. If this is the case, then yes, the institution is in control of the space that the student arranges for.

[This means a Clery trip form is required.]

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

If a student did not use the travel reimbursement for lodging, then the institution does not have control of the space and the space should not be included in the institution’s noncampus property. The lodging was arranged for and paid for by the student. In these cases, I would advise you to keep internal documentation that the institution’s money was not used to pay for lodging either directly or indirectly (an example of indirectly would be the institution paying a conference registration fee that includes housing arranged for by the conference, this establishes control for Clery Act purposes).

[If all the conditions in the Clery Help Desk response above are met, then a trip form is not needed.]

 

The U.S. Department of Education in the 2016 Edition of The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting definition is on page 2-2:

Controlled by means that your institution directly or indirectly rents, leases or has some other type of written agreement (including an informal one, such as a letter or an e-mail) for the use of a building or property, or a portion of a building or a property. Even if there is no payment involved in the transaction, for Clery Act purposes, a written agreement for the use of space give your institution control of that space for the time period specified in the agreement.

 

SUNY New Paltz participates in federal Title IV student financial assistance programs. All postsecondary institutions receiving Title IV funding must comply with the Higher Education Act. The HEA requires disclosure of campus crime statistics and security information. One of the HEA requirements involves providing crime statistics associated with off-campus student trips in the Clery Annual Security Report.

 

The Clery Help Desk response:

Part of the definition of noncampus includes “for educational purposes”. If the student’s travel is solely for his/her job and not for educational purposes this property does not need to be included in the noncampus category.

The Clery Help Desk response:

Please note that travel by recognized student groups is considered to be part of an institution’s educational purposes.

[This means a form is not required if a student is traveling solely for employment purposes. A form is required if a student is traveling for educational purposes or as part of a recognized student group.]