Facts: The Clery Act is a federal statute requiring universities receiving federal financial aid to disclose certain safety information and report crime on or near campus. Within this past month, the act was expanded to cover domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

Opinion: The new expansion of this act is meant to obtain accurate data of the interpersonal violence that happens on campus. With this new information, students can be better informed, which will aid in the prevention of these criminal actions.

The Clery Act requires the University to report all acts of crime on or near the campus and students can access the data reported. The act’s recent expansion now requires various types of interpersonal violence such as domestic violence, dating violence and stalking to be reported to Campus Police. This act will help increase students’ awareness about crimes and interpersonal violence at our University, which will aid in preventing the violence, just so long as it is properly followed and enforced.

According to Jon Barwell, Patrol Division Commander of N.C. State Campus Police, University students do not completely understand the definition and frequency of interpersonal violence on campus. However, this act aims to present a clear understanding about crimes on campus. Today there are more than 33,000 students on campus and not all of them understand there is an act that allows University employees and students to report violence and crimes on or near campus.

N.C. State Women’s Center claims one in every four women experiences some kind of sexual assault during their time at college. This expansion will help provide a clearer picture of interpersonal sexual violence that affects students.

This is why University employees and students should be aware it is their obligation to report such criminal activity so we may obtain accurate numbers to keep students, parents and faculty informed.

With this attempt to spreading awareness with the facts, our University can change the stigma behind sexual assault, which can aid in its elimination. The current reports of sexual assaults on campus are a significantly low number of six reported cases. This demonstrates how sexual assaults are the most underreported crimes on a college campus. With this expansion, the Clery Act can fix this.

Though the act has been expanded to include interpersonal violence, the responsibility of the implementation lies with campus police. Campus police rely on students to report those threats and violence. Hence it is a joint responsibility of students and the University to implement this act, making it successful and contributing to increased safety on campus.

The responsibility of the campus police or the formulators of the Clery Act is to formulate and implement the guidelines defined in this act if there are cases of sexual offenses or interpersonal violence. However, we as students need to realize we are a very important part of this system and it is our ignorance that makes any acts or initiatives unsuccessful. We need to find out more about this act and be aware of our surroundings.

Even though there are services on campus to help us, it is our understanding of the situation that makes the most difference. We can increase our awareness and knowledge about crimes by reporting incidents we find offensive, and contribute to making N.C. State a better and safer campus.