Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech’s appeal of its $55,000 fine for failure to issue timely warnings during the April 16, 2007, campus shootings will be heard in December.

The U.S. Department of Education has scheduled the hearing for Dec. 7-9 after Tech appealed its fine in April.

The agency levied the fine as a penalty for two violations of the Clery Act, a federal law that requires universities to report crime statistics and give communities timely warnings of campus crimes.

In a May 2010 report, the DOE said Tech failed to provide clear, timely warnings to its students and faculty members after the shootings in West Ambler-Johnston Hall on the morning of April 16. Student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members that day before killing himself. Most of the shootings took place in Norris Hall hours after the initial shootings in West Ambler-Johnston.

Tech officials filed the appeal in April with the help of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, saying the university complied with the law as it was understood in 2007.

“Based on what they knew at the time, law enforcement officers and the Virginia Tech administration acted appropriately,” Cuccinelli said in an April statement. “They did the best they could under the circumstances as they understood them. And that is the only fair standard by which their actions can be assessed.”

Tech’s appeal argues that the definition of a timely warning as it stood in 2007 — the act has been amended since the shootings — was “vague at best.” Instead, the appeal says the DOE is enforcing “a standard Virginia Tech was expected to meet that is based on after-the-fact knowledge.”

DOE officials fined Tech the maximum amount for each violation and said the fines should have been higher. The appeal is technically only related to the fine and cannot change the ruling. 

However, it gives the university a chance to make its case and perhaps set a more defined precedent for future situations. It could also change the amount of the fine.

“We look forward to making our case showing how the university actions were consistent with DOE guidelines and the actions of many other universities when presented with similar circumstances,” said university spokesman Larry Hincker in a statement.

December’s hearings, which are technically an administrative appeal, will take place in Washington D.C. If it is still unsatisfied with the result, the university could take the ruling to federal court.

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.