University at Buffalo Statement In Response to the State Comptroller's Clery Compliance Audit

The University at Buffalo is fully committed to the goals of the Clery Act. UB's full participation in the Clery Act is one of many ways we are working to create a very safe campus environment.

Any and all University at Buffalo non-compliance issues cited by the audit are relatively minor and were the result of honest errors made when interpreting Clery requirements and indexing crimes. There never was any attempt by the university to deliberately underreport crimes or manipulate data. In some cases, the audit found that UB actually over-reported crime data.

The university has taken immediate steps to correct the reporting errors. We have improved our procedures to ensure these mistakes are not repeated and that we are in full compliance with Clery requirements.

We are pleased the audit cited UB as the only university center to seek out and report statistics for off-campus crimes that occurred within geographic boundaries mandated by Clery. This is an example of UB's proactive approach to ensuring the safety of students, employees and visitors to our campus.

UB is a very safe campus. Our annual crime rate for serious crimes, such as assault and burglary, is lower than the Town of Amherst, which is ranked as the 4th safest community in America.

As another example of UB's commitment to campus safety, this year we invested $5 million in new exterior lighting, security cameras and emergency blue lights on our South Campus. And this month the university purchased three security cameras for the City of Buffalo that were installed in the University Heights neighborhood nearby UB's South Campus. This week, we began an interior security assessment of all buildings and facilities on the UB South Campus.

We are proud to have one of the best University Police Departments in the state. The UB Police Department is the only SUNY police department accredited by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.