Monthly Archives: May 2007

The following message was just sent to the campus community.  I deleted some inforamtion that may have been helpful to laptop theives, but the rest remains.

MESSAGE REGARDING CAMPUS SAFETY AND SECURITY FROM JANICE M. STROH, VICE PRESIDENT FOR BUSINESS AND FINANCE:
When I arrived at EMU, my intention was to run a transparent operation and keep people informed about critical concerns that were brought to my attention.  Hopefully, many of you have seen my previous messages and feel that I am honoring that commitment to keep people updated on critical issues concerning campus safety and security.  What I have strived to do is to look at the concerns, gather as much information as possible to separate out the accurate information from innuendo or rumor, and then disseminate concise and accurate information.
There are two issues that have been brought to my attention recently.
The first is the lost master key issue from 2005, and the second concerns the increased amount of office equipment being stolen on campus. 
ISSUE ONE:  LOST MASTER KEYS
In August 2005 a sub-contractor doing work for the University placed a set of master keys on a cart and left the keys unattended.  When he returned, the keys were missing.  A standard DPS incident report was completed on the situation, dated August 18, 2005.  On August 19, 2005 an e-mail communication was sent to senior members of the campus community alerting them to the incident.  In addition, the following steps were implemented at the time of the incident:
•          Public Safety was directed to provide for additional foot patrols in
buildings, including hiring an external guard service.
•          Plant custodial staff were informed and asked to be extra alert to
individuals that did not belong in their buildings.
•          The Physical Plant conducted a total assessment of the scope of the
project to recommend additional action.
•          Senior administrators were told to take the following steps:
•          Inform all staff members reporting to them about this incident.
•          Make sure staff working in the building carried proper identification
and were ready to produce it, if asked.
•          Remind all staff to shut and lock all interior doors to office suites
and individual offices.
•          Be aware of, and immediately report, any suspicious persons or
activity in their building to Public Safety.
The University negotiated with the firm employing the sub-contractor who left the keys unattended.  The University received a payment of $450,000 from the firm.  The University made the decision to add an additional $450,000 for a total budget of $900,000 for the rekeying project.  The University realized this would not allow a total rekeying of the campus, but it was money available at the time that could get the rekeying process started. Priorities were set, starting with student safety.
Therefore, since August 2005 all of the interior and exterior doors of the resident halls have been rekeyed.  The exterior doors of the non-resident hall buildings have been rekeyed with a single card control access for each building for after hours accessibility.  Part of the decision not to rekey the internal doors of Mark Jefferson and Pray-Harrold at that time was the belief that the funding for renovation of those two buildings was imminent and would include an entirely new security system for internal and external entry.
ISSUE TWO:  THEFT OF OFFICE EQUIPMENT
Recently, there has been an increase in the amount of office equipment being removed from offices.  A group consisting of physical plant, information computer technology, and public safety employees met to discuss ways to reduce the amount of office thefts.  .
One request I have received from several departments is to allow them to use their own department funds to rekey offices in their areas.  After thinking it over, I would not prohibit departments from doing this.
Understand that doing so would provide only a short-term solution because there is a key control master plan being developed that may use a different key control system, most likely a card reader system.  I just want to make this clear because I know that departmental budgets are tight, and I don’t want anyone spending money on rekeying their area without recognizing that ultimately a different system will likely be put in place. However, if department leaders want to pay to have their areas rekeyed, I have no objection if it will increase people’s sense of security at this time.
In working on these two issues, I am finding that people are automatically linking the missing keys from August 2005 to the recent rash of thefts of office equipment particularly laptop computers.  I have been reading the police reports concerning the larceny of these laptops.  While a small number of them appear to be the result of someone using a key to enter an office, most of the larcenies have occurred because the person left a door unlocked or left their computer sitting unattended on campus.  In a number of police reports, the person reporting the theft stated that a number of other people had keys to the office or that s/he had let others borrow the key.
As I read the police incident reports, I see that there are doors found unlocked on almost a daily basis.  Besides being vigilant, I would like to encourage you to think about good habits regarding the safe keeping of property.  Do not give your key to other people, make sure that doors are locked when you leave, do not leave property unattended, do not allow people to follow you into a locked building that you do not know, and do not prop doors open.  It is my belief that this will significantly reduce the number of the larcenies.
Finally, I would like to ask the University community to cautiously weigh information about EMU that is available through various sources.
As we all know, a piece of information can be miscommunicated, misunderstood, or misinterpreted as it is disseminated. The University will not shirk from its responsibility to keep the campus community informed with clear, timely and accurate information. Remember campus safety is everyone’s responsibility.

An excellent new editorial is availble from the Ann Arbor News:

 

Time for EMU to issue report on investigation

It’s been five months since Laura Dickinson was found dead in her Eastern Michigan University dorm room.

 

It’s been five months since the coroner’s report indicated that foul play was suspected in the death – but only two months since the public was suddenly told she was murdered. The university’s public safety officials didn’t tell the public until they arrested a suspect.

 

It’s been almost two months since EMU’s Board of Regents hired a law firm to investigate how officials handled the release of information following her death.

 

It’s past time to let the public know exactly what happened.

….

 

http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/117915376774080.xml&coll=2

After the Dickinson rape and murder, there was another case of rape on the borders of campus at a local laundry business. 

 

So far as I know, this crime was not reported to the campus community, as it should have been had the Clery Act been followed.  It was also a crime that was repeated in a similar fashion soon after, although away from campus.
 
The Ann Arbor News has a story on it today:
 

Teens face rape charges
Victims were also robbed
Friday, May 11, 2007
BY SUSAN L. OPPAT
News Staff Reporter
 

Two teens accused of raping and robbing women in Ypsilanti and Van Buren Township on Jan. 16 will be arraigned in Washtenaw County next week.
 

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1178894428308910.xml&coll=2
 

I have not had a chance to listen to and sum up the second half of the recording of the Feb 25 meeting with Tower residents concerning the Dickinson rape and murder, but that recording is now available in its entirety for you to make your own judgments about:
http://www.acoykenda.net/towers.mp3
 

This is an extremely large MP3 file, almost one megabyte for each of the 65 minutes of sound, so give it a while to download.  The part where you left off (if you listened to that made available before) is at the 38-minute mark.

 

To see the commentary on the first half of the recording, see the earlier post, “Cover Up Continued: Resident-Only Towers Meeting on MP3″:
http://emutalk.org/?p=316
 

At the following link, you will find a recording of the Feb 25 meeting with Tower residents concerning the so-called “death� investigation of Laura Dickinson after Orange Taylor III was arrested for her sexual assault and murder:
http://www.acoykenda.net/towers.mp3

 
The file is large (38 Mb) since it lasts a full 38 minutes.  Only residents of the Towers were at this meeting, in which Candace Dorsey and Jim Vick not only mislead, but outright lie to, EMU students about the homicide of their nearby neighbor and fellow student. 
This recording was done on the sly by a very smart, very foreword-thinking student who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.  The quality is very good.
Vick and Dorsey dominate the meeting, giving the students very little time to ask questions.  One student says that Dorsey was the one to tell her that Laura “fell asleep in bed with her keys in her room.�  The DPS officer then denies doing so, yet proceeds to offer that student even more lies as an explanation, stating that she was in the room and saw the condition of the body, yet perceived “no obvious signs of foul play.�  She lists every murder weapon in the book, skipping over the obvious one: strangulation by pillow after a violent sexual assault.

 
Vick does much the same, maintaining that “situationsâ€? like Laura’s murder “aren’t crystal clearâ€? and that there are “a lot of judgment calls.â€?  How much of a crystal ball does one need considering the clear signs of sexual assault, the missing keys, the nudity and position of the body, and the pillow over her face? 

 
They blame the Ann Arbor News for downplaying the signs of murder after the discovery of the body and then also for exaggerating the nature of the murder after the arrest of Taylor.  Apparently, it was that newspaper, not EMU press releases, that initially stated that there were no signs of foul play, which we know to be utterly false, and it was also the Ann Arbor News that, according to Dorsey, is “ripping us apart� with its “sensational … news reporting� and “rumors.�   She claims that “the Ann Arbor News doesn’t have the same personal interest in you that we do,� encouraging students to trust in the lies of the administration rather than in journalistic accounts taken straight from legal documents that have strict standards of accuracy.

 
Vick and Dorsey claim several times that the administration is seeking to protect the investigation in holding back information from students, but they seem more interested in denying that there was a crime in the first place, and thus in jeopardizing its prosecution in a court of law, than in actually ensuring that a proper investigation takes place.

 

**Update the link above has changed.  The file from before was incomplete.