The Education Department in a letter Thursday to Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said the school violated the Jeanne Clery Act, a federal law requiring schools to give "timely warnings" about safety threats on campus.
The department will decide whether sanctions are needed. Punishments could include fines or revoking eligibility for federal student aid. More than a third of Virginia Tech students receive such aid.
Virginia Tech Could Be Fined For Shootings
Virginia Tech disputes the findings and will appeal.
School administrators "acted appropriately" based on the information they had at the time, university spokesman Larry Hincker said.
The Clery act does not define "timely," he said.
"It appears that timely warning is whatever the Department of Education decides after the fact," Hincker said. "We provided to the department numerous examples of assaults, shootings, stabbings and murders on other university campuses in which their campus notifications far exceeded in time our April 16 notice."
Virginia Tech e-mailed a warning at 9:26 a.m. April 16, two hours and two minutes after police arrived at a dorm where two students had been shot.
Virginia Tech Could Be Fined For Shootings
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