Angela (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} blogingfemme) wrote,@ 2007-06-08 18:48:00 |
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Butzel Long Report released
So my school, Eastern Michigan, has been in trouble for awhile now because back in December a student was murdered in her dorm room...and the school decided to frame it as a "death investigation" until February 23rd, when we were told that another student had been arrested in connection to her rape and murder.
Surprise, surprise: you're not supposed to hide such information from students. In fact, an investigation was started pretty quickly to see if the school had violated federal law. The investigation has been on two fronts: the US. Department of Education (responsible for enforcing the Clery Act) as encouraged by Security on Campus and by Butzel Long, a law firm hired by EMU.
Today, the Butzel Long report was released.
Tension and anxiety have been high on campus ever since February 23rd. NOTHING about this case was handled properly by the university. We were openly lied to, and this is simply the most serious incidence of the administration lying to us. Before I came here, there was the incidence of misappropriated funding for the President's House. Then there's the issue of a set of master keys being lost/stolen back in 2005. Long story short: keys were stolen, no one was actually told (although maybe they were supposed to be) and it took the University at least a year to get all of the dorms re-keyed (mine was re-done in July 2006) and there are still faculty offices that haven't been re-keyed and a number of thefts have occurred from locked offices. We also don't like the administration because they don't seem to be doing all they can do (or are unwilling to explain why they can't do more) in order to repair our aging classroom buildings. It's a mess.
The news that a fellow student had been arrested in connection to this rape/murder came as a complete shock to a lot of us. Corny as it may be, I still remember where I was when I first heard about it: I was in a van traveling with the forensics team to our state tournament. It was the first weekend of spring break, so while the abnormally-current-events-savvy forensics team was around to hear about this issue, a whole lotta people were already well on their way to Cancun and wouldn't hear about this for quite some time.
The eight of us or so who were in the van were absolutely livid. This was before we knew that it was obvious from the beginning that Laura Dickinson had been raped. We, having common sense, knew that you didn't go from "accidental death" to "rape/homicide" investigation over night. We were scared, knowing that the student had been with us on campus for the last two months.
Since February, the outrage has died down, but I have a feeling it's going to be rekindled once the general campus population has the chance to read the report. Especially this little bit taken from the summary:
Also that week, an initial DPS incident draft report (IDR)... was circulated to the Student Affairs office. The IDR contained specific and graphic information about Ms. Dickinson's room and the condition under which she was found. After several Student Affairs administrators discovered and read the IDR, they brought it to Mr. [Vice President for Student Affairs Jim] Vick's attention. Mr. Vick directed that the IDR be shredded (emphasis mine)
Who does that? Who in their right mind would think "Hm, a student has died on campus, this tells us what it was like when she was discovered...oh well, that's not important! Let's shred it!" Hey, it did say "draft" after all...
No, clearly this is an act of gross incompetence and best and criminal proportions at worst. I for one am extremely curious to hear Vick's excuse for shredding that report. Now, I have no idea if there would ever be a reason for that information to be released to the public...but I'd love to hear it anyway. (EDIT: I just read a report on EMUTalk in the comments section about this report. There was a press conference this afternoon where it was stated that Vick didn't want students working in the office to see the report and it's graphic details. Not a good excuse to shred the document)
Vick was placed on paid administrative leave back in March, so at the very least he's out of the picture. However, a cover up of this magnitude doesn't happen with just one person. Cindy Hall, chief of the department of public safety, has been implicated as helping to cover this up. The Butzel Long report concludes that President Fallon was never informed of the full extent of the Dickinson case, an explanation for which I can come up with four possibilities:
1) Vick and Hall were the only people who knew the extent of the case, thus were able to keep it quiet (nearly impossible, considering other Student Affairs administrators saw the IDR)
2) A whole lot of other people were involved in the cover up
3) Fallon never asked the right questions of the right people, leaving a "don't ask, don't tell" environment in Welch Hall
4) Fallon was willfully ignorant of the situation, refusing to ask the necessary questions and/or waiting for information to come to him.
None of these possibilities are very reassuring.
So my school, Eastern Michigan, has been in trouble for awhile now because back in December a student was murdered in her dorm room...and the school decided to frame it as a "death investigation" until February 23rd, when we were told that another student had been arrested in connection to her rape and murder.
Surprise, surprise: you're not supposed to hide such information from students. In fact, an investigation was started pretty quickly to see if the school had violated federal law. The investigation has been on two fronts: the US. Department of Education (responsible for enforcing the Clery Act) as encouraged by Security on Campus and by Butzel Long, a law firm hired by EMU.
Today, the Butzel Long report was released.
Tension and anxiety have been high on campus ever since February 23rd. NOTHING about this case was handled properly by the university. We were openly lied to, and this is simply the most serious incidence of the administration lying to us. Before I came here, there was the incidence of misappropriated funding for the President's House. Then there's the issue of a set of master keys being lost/stolen back in 2005. Long story short: keys were stolen, no one was actually told (although maybe they were supposed to be) and it took the University at least a year to get all of the dorms re-keyed (mine was re-done in July 2006) and there are still faculty offices that haven't been re-keyed and a number of thefts have occurred from locked offices. We also don't like the administration because they don't seem to be doing all they can do (or are unwilling to explain why they can't do more) in order to repair our aging classroom buildings. It's a mess.
The news that a fellow student had been arrested in connection to this rape/murder came as a complete shock to a lot of us. Corny as it may be, I still remember where I was when I first heard about it: I was in a van traveling with the forensics team to our state tournament. It was the first weekend of spring break, so while the abnormally-current-events-savvy forensics team was around to hear about this issue, a whole lotta people were already well on their way to Cancun and wouldn't hear about this for quite some time.
The eight of us or so who were in the van were absolutely livid. This was before we knew that it was obvious from the beginning that Laura Dickinson had been raped. We, having common sense, knew that you didn't go from "accidental death" to "rape/homicide" investigation over night. We were scared, knowing that the student had been with us on campus for the last two months.
Since February, the outrage has died down, but I have a feeling it's going to be rekindled once the general campus population has the chance to read the report. Especially this little bit taken from the summary:
Also that week, an initial DPS incident draft report (IDR)... was circulated to the Student Affairs office. The IDR contained specific and graphic information about Ms. Dickinson's room and the condition under which she was found. After several Student Affairs administrators discovered and read the IDR, they brought it to Mr. [Vice President for Student Affairs Jim] Vick's attention. Mr. Vick directed that the IDR be shredded (emphasis mine)
Who does that? Who in their right mind would think "Hm, a student has died on campus, this tells us what it was like when she was discovered...oh well, that's not important! Let's shred it!" Hey, it did say "draft" after all...
No, clearly this is an act of gross incompetence and best and criminal proportions at worst. I for one am extremely curious to hear Vick's excuse for shredding that report. Now, I have no idea if there would ever be a reason for that information to be released to the public...but I'd love to hear it anyway. (EDIT: I just read a report on EMUTalk in the comments section about this report. There was a press conference this afternoon where it was stated that Vick didn't want students working in the office to see the report and it's graphic details. Not a good excuse to shred the document)
Vick was placed on paid administrative leave back in March, so at the very least he's out of the picture. However, a cover up of this magnitude doesn't happen with just one person. Cindy Hall, chief of the department of public safety, has been implicated as helping to cover this up. The Butzel Long report concludes that President Fallon was never informed of the full extent of the Dickinson case, an explanation for which I can come up with four possibilities:
1) Vick and Hall were the only people who knew the extent of the case, thus were able to keep it quiet (nearly impossible, considering other Student Affairs administrators saw the IDR)
2) A whole lot of other people were involved in the cover up
3) Fallon never asked the right questions of the right people, leaving a "don't ask, don't tell" environment in Welch Hall
4) Fallon was willfully ignorant of the situation, refusing to ask the necessary questions and/or waiting for information to come to him.
None of these possibilities are very reassuring.