Regarding the witnessing of a criminal act - IF there is a demonstratable policy at the university that states or suggests that those connected with the university contact non-police university employees instead of the university police department (at most PUBLIC universities today the officers are sworn, state or local, police officers) or the local or state police, then I would think the harmed would have a potential lawsuit because of that policy.
I agree.
And the low-level employee who honestly follows the policy, reasonably (key) thinking that someone up the chain calls the police when appropriate, probably has a defense.
It’s not unreasonable for institutions, depending on the nature of the incident, to refer decisions on calling the police to a higher level. But then the police must be called if appropriate or required by law.
And a policy should never be expressed as basically prohibiting a person from taking action, including calling law enforcement, to protect a person from a criminal act or other harm.
It wouldn’t surprise me that big-time college football programs have an explicity or implicit system of trying to “handle” all negative matters internally, even though this could amount to a policy of covering up crime on a systematic basis.