I just received (along with everyone else at EMU, I assume) an email from Thomas Sidlik, the current chair of the EMU Board of Regents, reporting on the Butzel Long investigation of the Dickinson murder. Quite frankly, I find its tone refreshing and brutally honest. Here it is:
This morning, the law firm of Butzel Long provided the Board of Regents with an oral and written report of its investigation in the University’s actions following the death of EMU student Laura Dickinson.
Laura was killed on the EMU campus in December. This is a tragedy we continue to grieve.
The Board committed to a thorough, forthright and open process regarding this investigation. This afternoon, we are sharing the final report with our campus community and the general public.
I commend Jim Stapleton and his subcommittee members Gary Hawks and Fran Parker for taking on this important assignment. I believe that once you have read the Butzel Long report you will agree this goal has been achieved.
The report reveals a systemic failure to comply with the federal Clery Act, including the failure to warn the campus of potential danger. The findings are clear: This University got it wrong. What happened was unacceptable.
We know that many members in our community felt a breach of trust and deep anxiety because of the University’s failures. On behalf of the Board, I apologize and pledge that the safety of our students , and the well-being of the entire campus community, is of paramount importance.
The report also shows us that the University has already taken steps to correct what went wrong. Several initiatives are now underway to respond more effectively in emergencies and report crimes more accurately. Bur there will be much more work to do in the days ahead.
This detailed report will guide us as we decide what actions we must take to improve campus safety and security. We will make the changes necessary to better inform and protect our community.
The Board has made the executive summary and full report available on line at http://www.emich.edu/regents/Butzel_Long_investigation/BL_execsum.pdf and http://www.emich.edu/regents/Butzel_Long_investigation/BL_report.pdf
Some initial thoughts on all of this:
- Someone has finally given the EMU Board of Regents some good PR advice. What they’ve done here is a) come clean and (God forbid!) actually apologize about someone turning up dead on campus, and b) released the news late on a Friday. An EMU media office job this is not.
- I will look through these investigation reports eventually (see previous post on spring teaching blues), but it sounds like Butzel Long might have actually done a real investigation. I know that there was a lot of fear that this was going to be merely a CYA thing and/or a way to refute the US Department of Education case. On the surface, this doesn’t seem to be happening.Slight update: I did have a chance to look over the “Executive Summary,” and it is very clear that the findings of Butzel Long are that EMU handled this unbelievably badly.
- So, we’ve got an apology from the chair of the BoR (and that’s really good, by the way). But of course the real question now is what’s next? Will we see any resignations? Any dismissals?
I’m sure there will be more to come….
Went to the Press Conference. Handled very well by the Regents and Butzel-Long. The long and short of it – Cindy Hall and Jim Vick are toast. It was revealed at the PC that one of the two had a very graphic draft incident report shredded. They described the DPS as pretty incompetent – no crisis plan for a unique situation. Also the University has no written policies for the Clery Act. What I want to know is where is the University Attorney in all of this? Also it was made pretty clear that Vick and the rest of them did not keep Fallon properly informed.
Sorry about the multiple post – June 19th Regents meeting – changes will be made in regard to personnel at that time.
Wow. Just wow.. some of the stuff brought to light in this report (the shredding) shocked me.
Sidlick and the BOR demonstrate guts. Good on them and a good portent for EMU.
Alum, that’s a good question about the university attorney.
I found the report appalling. What on earth were they thinking? Also, I can’t believe that President Fallon wasn’t informed about what was transpiring. And if he wasn’t, what does that say about his competence in this entire tragedy? I feel so sad for the Dickinson’s and I feel sad for EMU which once again has been victimized by incompetent, corrupt individuals whose interests lie dramatically outside the bounds of human ethical standards.
The only surprise in or about the report is the transparency and “brutal honesty.” I hope this is just the start of honest and transparent operations at EMU. We deserve it, and it’s the only way we’ll recover from being served so badly by so many for so long.
I was at the news conference (thanks to Susan’s inside info) and wrote it up for the AAUP records with the help of Susan Moeller. See below. I think it is a pretty good summary of the highlights.
June 8, at l:30 p.m. the EMU-AAUP Vice- President, Susan Moeller, and Grievance Officer, Elaine Martin, attended an unannounced press conference held by the EMU Regents to present the report of the investigation into the cover-up of the murder of EMU student Laura Dickerson.
They were the only faculty members present, although a small number of administrators were in attendance, and a large contingent of print and television press. The law firm, Buetzel-Long, was hired by the Board to conduct the 10 week long investigation which interviewed 80 people and resulted in a 1200 page report. An executive summary of the report will be posted on-line.
Chairman Sidlick opened the press conference and stated that “the University got it wrong;� there were “systemic failures.� Sidlick stated further: “On behalf of the Board of Regents, I apologize.� He said that no questions about individual personnel decisions that the Board might make would be answered, and he held to that position despite stringent questioning from the press. He said at the end of the conference that personnel decisions would be made near the time of the next BOR meeting on June 19th.
The lawyers from Buetzel Long painted a devastating picture of the failures of the EMU administration to communicate with and protect the university community. They identified three key factors:
1) a systemic failure to comply with the requirements of the Cleary Act, including a lack of coherent policy, a lack of administrative oversight, and a lack of training of personnel.
2) A failure to warn the EMU community of the danger to their safety, a lack of understanding of their obligations under the Cleary Act, and a failure to correct information that they knew to be inaccurate as early as December 16.
3) There was a widespread responsibility for these failures. Many people lacked initiative that they should have shown, and many lacked basic understanding.
Factors in the lack of administrative oversight of the Cleary Act requirements included:
1) misunderstanding of the legal requirements
2) misunderstanding of the facts of the event
3) lack of active consideration of whether a warning should be given
4) uncertainty in the face of a new situation
Ward Mullins, EMU media specialist, was on the scene of the homicide with Chief Hall and he wrote a draft press release, which was reviewed and approved by Hall, but never got released. It is not clear why. His release gave three possibilities: homicide, suicide, or natural causes. Instead, Fallon worked with Rhonda DeLong who was in Grand Rapids and did not know any details of the scene and received no communications from law enforcement. She also did not seek to confirm any facts from law enforcement, but issued a “no foul play� press release, which became the official university position.
During the week of December 18th (the homicide occurred on December 12), a DPS report was sent to Student Affairs that contained details of the scene which made it clear that it was a suspicious death. Jim Vick directed the shredding of this report, because he said, he was concerned about the graphic details being seen by students who worked in the Office. It is not clear if anyone directed Vick to shred this document.
The Department of Education is also aware of the violations of the Cleary Act and may be imposing fines.
The Report makes three recommendations:
1. a written procedure for following the Cleary Act
2. establish the level of authority necessary before information is issued to the University community
3. The DPS be moved from Student Affairs to Business and Finance
Q & A
The investigation so far , at about half-way, has cost between $220,000 and 225,000.
The Board has apologized for the “incident.� to the Dickinson family
The Board will be making some personnel changes before or around the next BOR meeting on June 19th.
Global Compliance hotline was not created because of this incident. (reporters were give copies of the brochure after one asked for the hotline number) – it is apparently mentioned in the Report
Fallon wasn’t present, because this is a BOR matter, he has not yet received a copy of the Report, but will get one this afternoon.
Q- when did administration know? December 15, DPS knew it was a homicide, Hall told Vick, Vick says he didn’t tell Fallon. Comment by Butzel Long, evidence of� miscommunication and a dysfunctional� system.
Like everyone else, the news of the shredded report shocks me. Who honestly thinks that’s the proper course of action in a situation like this? I wonder if we’ll ever get any sort of explanation for that (not calling for Vick’s head on a platter here – I have no idea how/why such information would be made public, it’s just curiosity on my part).
The press conference was sparsely attended because many EMU administrators were told NOT to attend. Some, in fact, were advised to take the afternoon off, perhaps so they would not be available to the media? So much for transparency.
I hate to say it – but I told you so. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. So sad that it had to be at the expense of a lovely, bright young woman and her family. So dissapointing that upstanding members of our EMU employment pool where set up as scapegoats in a failed attempt to save the arses of current leadership.
Raven,
Who/whom are you saying “where [sic] set up as scapegoats”?
Mike -
The primary scapegoat is the EMU Police Department. Specific officers where dragged through all the rings of hell in effort to divert attention away from Jim Vick.
Raven, I’m only partially through the full report, but I do agree.. so far it seems like there were officers dragged through a lot of politics.
–
A lot of the information in here really makes me ashamed to think that I felt Jim Vick was being used as a scapegoat. I won’t be surprised if both Chief Hall and Vick are gone from EMU.
Page 63 references EMUTalk.org and the recordings of the meeting (http://emutalk.org/?p=316 and http://emutalk.org/?p=319). It states: ‘On or about March 4th, there were a series of meetings for the tower residents and staff. In early May 2007, an audio recording of what appears to be one of these March 4th meetings was posted on the EMUtalk.org website. The audio recording was attributed to an “anonymous student” and identified as a recording of a “Feburary 25, 2007″ meeting. This meeting could not have occurred on February 25th as Mr. Vick, who participated at the meeting, was out of town on vacation on February 25th. Other statements in the audio recording support the conclusion that this meeting did not take place on February 25th but instead at a later time. According to several witnesses, this meeting took place on March 4th. A rough transcript of the audio recording is attached as Exhibit 25th.’
So, Mr. Vick shredded a document, and somehow the public relations office was induced to issue a false statement. Those who since Feb. have doubted that a cover up was underway should now reflect on the real quality of (mis)leadership that runs EMU.
One thing I disagree with BOR Chair Sidlick on: He said that “The University got this wrong.” The wrongs committed were by a few elite EMU officials, and they are wrongs that are unforgivable and deeply harmful to EMU. They are also wrongs that it is unimaginable that EMU people from outside the Welch Hall crowd and their immediate subordinates would have undertaken. To lie about the cause of death of a student?
On the very good question some of you have raised about Where was the University Counsel in all this?, it’s clear he was deeply complicit in the unethical conduct and incompetence that produced the Hill Hall cover up.
As University Counsel, Ken McKanders is supposed to ensure that EMU follow all relevant laws. He’s paid to do that. He has, over the years, done nothing substantive to ensure that EMU follow the requirements of the Clery Act. He has not taken steps to ensure honesty in the conduct of EMU administrative business. And when the Laura Dickinson case cover up first hit the press, he stated to a reporter that EMU had disclosed all the information about the case it could. Mr. McKanders is a very nice person, but he has been a very poor university counsel, as he fails to distinguish between the University’s interests and the interests of his fellow Welch Hall residents.
There has to be a point in time where we separate ‘well he is a nice guy’ from holding people accountable for their actions and leadership failures.
Until we do that, we shouldn’t be surprised at what we get from our elected officials or senior adminstrators.
– Steve
I never actually received an e-mail about the report being released. Did any other students receive an e-mail, or did the e-mail only go out to faculty/staff?
I haven’t received an e-mail about it either, Mike. I thought maybe it was just problems with the emich server, but maybe not.
Are we supposed to blindly accept the idea that Fallon knew nothing about any of this?
If he didn’t know, WHY NOT? Why did he not make it clear that he wanted to be informed? The rest of us were asking.
This entire report is a dishonest, CYA for President John Fallon.
In fact, as the news pointed out, they wouldn’t even COMMENT on President John Fallon during the meeting.
Open process? Not hardly.
“Also it was made pretty clear that Vick and the rest of them did not keep Fallon properly informed. ”
It is the duty of a University President to GET INFORMED, not to BE INFORMED.
I swear it. Eastern Michigan University would be better off with ME as University President and I do not even have a Master’s Degree yet.
John (of http://www.newsnet14.com/), I deleted your post because it violated what I see as one of “Da Rules” in that your post was racist, crude, and insensitive.
Since starting at EMU last Fall, I have had to cross picket lines, heard of regents resigning, and witnessed the sad handling of a fellow students death. Many brick and morter improvements need to be followed with some leadership improvements to heal the black eyes this University is pilling up. Progress has got to be more than PR! I want to be safe, receive a quality education, and be proud of the school I attend. I’m am encourage by the actions of the regents. There is a lot of work to do and I believe I’m not alone in saying were counting on you.
The school did no right in this matter.
Do not let the school off the hook.
The family has been put through hell.
If the charges stick and DNA matchs the accused he should be put to death now.
I hope lawyers, special interest groups, media hungry low lifes like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the new and improved Black Panthers dont come to help this case. I am sick of seeing criminal rights come ahead of victims.
The case has been low profile wonder why?