The U.S. Department of Education has informed Eastern Michigan University that it will investigate the institution’s handling of the release of information to the campus after a student was sexually assaulted and killed in her dormitory room, The Ann Arbor News reported. The review, which is scheduled to begin next week, will look into whether administrators complied with the Clery Act, a federal law that requires colleges to disclose information about crimes on their campuses and to warn students of threats to their safety.

The department began questioning Eastern Michigan officials informally this month after receiving a complaint from Security on Campus Inc., a watchdog group. The federal agency announced the formal inquiry in an e-mail message to the university’s president, John A. Fallon III, the Ann Arbor newspaper reported. The university’s governing board, meanwhile, has commissioned its own independent review of the case.

After the student, Laura Dickinson, was found dead in December, Eastern Michigan officials announced they did not suspect foul play, and staff members told students there was no reason to worry. They did not disclose any information about the circumstances of Ms. Dickinson’s death until late February, when another student was charged with rape and murder in the case. A senior official with Security on Campus complained that it was “abundantly clear” that campus authorities had reason to believe from the beginning that she was the victim of a violent crime, and that the university should have warned students about the danger. —Charles Huckabee