MORGANTOWN — In 2024, West Virginia University’s Morgantown Campus saw a 33% jump in reported instances of domestic violence over 2023.
Reports of stalking jumped 75% in that same period.
The numbers were released Tuesday as part of the university’s 2025 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report – a document mandated by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.
More commonly known as the Clery Act, the law was passed by Congress in 1990 following a yearslong campaign by the family of Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered in her dorm room by a fellow student in 1986.
The law seeks to provide information about the safety and security of college communities to enable people to make informed decisions about college for educational or employment purposes.
It is required of all federally funded colleges and universities.
Since the 2013 passage of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, all Clery Act reporting must include compiled statistics for incidents of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.
Two of the areas in which WVU’s main Morgantown Campus saw notable increases fall under this subcategory.
Domestic violence reports have climbed from 21 in 2022, to 24 in 2023, to 32 in the previous calendar year.
There were 42 stalking reports in 2024, nearly double the 22 reported in 2022. There were 24 in 2023.
In a WVU release, WVU Police Chief Sherry St. Clair stated “Many of the reported instances of stalking stemmed from unwanted contact following breakups or other relationship issues.”
The report notes that the numbers do not reflect the outcome of investigations conducted by the university or responding law enforcement agencies.
Other significant increases include burglary – which jumped from 10 reports in 2023 to 25 in 2024 – and drug and alcohol violations
Liquor law violations nearly doubled between 2022 and 2024 – from 89 to 175, while drug abuse violations in 2024 (38) is well up from the 11 instances in 2023 but below the 47 reported for 2022.
According to the report, there were two reportable hate crimes in 2024, both being on campus vandalisms characterized by national origin bias.
Beginning in 2026, institutions must include data on reported instances of hazing as a requirement of the Stop Campus Hazing Act signed into law on Dec. 23, 2024.
Additional information, including a link to the full WVU report, is available at wvutoday.wvu.edu. More information about the Clery Act can be found at clerycenter.org.
