Following a seven-year investigation, the Department of Education has fined Yale $165,000 for failing to report four incidents of forcible sex offenses in 2001 and 2002, according to an April 19 letter to the Yale administration.

The DOE is imposing a $27,500 fine for each offense and two additional fines for failing to include seven required policy statements in its 2004 crime report and crime statistics from Yale-New Haven Hospital in its annual assessment. According to the DOE, these incidents are in violation of the Clery Act, which requires institutions to report sexual assault among other crimes in an annual compilation of crime data.

“The University believes that the Department’s imposition of maximum fines is not warranted based on the particular situations that resulted in findings of violations and, as a result, does not meaningfully advance the goals of the Clery Act,” University spokesman Tom Conroy told the News on Wednesday night. “The University has therefore requested that the Department reconsider and lower the fine.”

The DOE investigation was opened in 2004 after a July-August 2004 Yale Alumni Magazine article titled “Lux Veritas and Sexual Trespass” raised concerns regarding the University’s compliance with campus security requirements. The department first found Yale to be noncompliant with the Clery Act in a 2010 report to the University.

A letter sent to Yale in 2011 with conclusions of the investigation stated that the University omitted two forcible sex offenses in 2001 and two in 2002. The University also failed to “properly define its campus,” and therefore failed to provide statistics for seven additional spaces within the Yale-New Haven Hospital. In addition, the letter stated that Yale’s Annual Security Report lacked “critical information,” including a statement of campus policies related to crime reporting and response.