Sorry to break the holiday cheer with a nod to the often unwelcome news, but there is a good editorial in the Grand Rapids Press today, “Expensive Mistakes.” In it, the authors list the various costs of the Dickinson rape/murder cover up and then remark:
“Those are the bills that can be quantified. Other costs can’t be written in a ledger but are no less real. The treatment of Ms. Dickinson’s family evidenced a near-criminal lack of basic human concern. EMU’s bizarre decision to remain mum in the face a suspected sexual assault and murder left students exposed.
Revising EMU’s flawed policies and changing its culture should be the task of the Board of Regents, especially chair, Thomas W. Sidlik, as well as university Provost and Executive Vice President Donald M. Loppnow. Ms. Dickinson’s case is a reprehensible example of misplaced and forgotten priorities. That lesson should be clear. Now comes the test of the university’s resolve not to let something so costly happen again.”
I very much hope that our university passes this important test–our students deserve no less (or, actually much, much more) than not to be endangered or lied to a second time around. So far Loppnow and Sidlik seem to be very much doing their duty in this respect, and of course much depends on the new police chief who will assume office once the successful candidate is announced.
It was also interesting to note that ex-president Fallon shared the spotlight with several notorious criminals and shysters in the following Year-in-Retrospect article, “Newsmakers: People who Walked in the Limelight in ’07“:
Two of Michigan’s most notorious inmates — Jack Kevorkian and Nathaniel Abraham — walked free from prison. Kevorkian grabbed headlines by vowing to stop helping the terminally ill from killing themselves. Young killer Abraham did so by walking out of court in an eye-popping suit. … Eastern Michigan University President John A. Fallon II was ousted in July on claims the institution covered up the dorm-room rape and murder of student Laura Dickinson. Fallon claims he’s a scapegoat …
There was actually one bullet in between Kevorkian/Abraham and Fallon, but the ironic juxtaposition of Fallon with two men who got away with murder wearing spectacular suits was too good to miss–the only difference being that Fallon considers himself a victim and expects to be compensated for his own failings even more than he already has been.
Interesting article in January 2008 Cosmopolitan magazine. My daughter pointed it out to me: “Why Your Campus Can be A Danger Zone”. The article begins with a long, detailed summary of Laura Dickinson’s murder and the subsequent administrative cover up.
One of my friends had a conversation with Administration higher ups at the President’s House before commencement. They said that EMU relied on advice from the Ypsilanti and State Police to keep things quiet so the perp would not run.
Why don’t we keep going over this until we’re blue in the face. Nothing is new. Most of the media outlets don’t even give the correct account of what Eastern actually has to pay. In addition, everyone take the Clery Act as the best thing since buttered bread. Has anyone done an analysis of how this Act might interfere with good detective work. It seems to me that the Dept. of Education has more power than it needs. A good idea, but a bad law! Needs to be tweaked a bit, but knowbody has the guts to do it.
Alum,
What specifically about the Clery Act do you not like and think interferes with detective work?
Because, I do not like to believe you think lying to the student body is preferable?
Alum, what you were told recently by unnamed top administrators at some University House gathering is not new, as it’s the same line that the Welch Hall gang was putting out last winter and spring, when Mr Jim Vick was still part of that group. More importantly, the claim the state police instructed EMU officials to withhold the fact that a murder was being investigated from the parents of the dead student and the public too, is dubious. If it was credible, the Butzell Long report would have reported it as such; likewise, if there were documents or evidence to support it, then they would have been put forth to the Dept of Ed investigation.
Further, the claim that EMU withheld the info to minimize the chances that the killer/rapist would flee is belied by the fact that it is virtually unheard of for police agencies, in recent decades in this country, to lie to about whether an event (like a death) that received much media attention from the start was or was not being investigated as a crime. The killer knew that it was a crime, misleading the public about the fact a crime was being investigated was irrelevant to the suspect’s risk of flight: He almost alone in the public knew that there was an investigation being conducted.
The entire basis of this line of defense appears now, as it did 10 months ago, to be based on nothing more than mere assertion, and mostly by unnamed persons. That is, it’s a rumor. No evidence has been produced to support it. Last winter, it was part of the rumor machine being orchestrated at that time by the defenders of Mr. Vick. Now it appears that this discredited rumor has been ressurected by friends of Mr Vick who are joining his campaign to rehabilitate his reputation. Indeed, the county prosecutor’s office admitted in March that it is not normal law enforcement practice to lie to the public about whether a death was being treated as murder. Nor has anyone named even one other case of a murder case not being publicly labeled a murder investigation by the relevant police officials.
So, Alum, i must respectfully say that you appear to have been “spun” with a dubious line. Whether the spinners were themselves spun, or just spinning with outright dishonest intent, I don’t know. I do know that one Welch hall official told me in March that he knew, and John Fallon knew, things that they could not reveal about the Hill Hall investigation, but which if I was aware of all that they knew, I’d agree that Fallon had handled everything just fine. I told this official – a man whose work I respect, but whose lack of integrity and brains on this was painful to behold – that this was a bogus defense, since neither he nor Fallon were qualified to make law enforcement decisions. It ‘s an argument akin to the Vietnam era argument that ‘if you knew what the President knew, you’d support the war, but he can’t tell you all he knows.’ If there was any validity to this defense, Alum, the relevant officials would have brought it out into the open, and proposed it publicly, and provided evidence for it.
They have not. The idea is totally bogus, and it just demonstrates the total moral and managerial bankruptcy of the relevant EMU administrators.
Jim Vick is in so many ways a nice guy, and he has a terrifically engaging personality; but he failed dismally, disasterously, catastrophically at his job, and his errors were born of a willingness to be dishonest, to inflict harm on the Dickinson family by not telling them the truth. At least a few of his subordinates behaved similiarly. These are facts: Vick harmed EMU and the Dickinson family tremendously. In a moral universe, he’d be held liable for these errors, not given a generous pay off. Jim’s friends should reframe from repeating this discredited, baseless claim that lying to the public and the parents was in any way a reasonable choice, aimed at trying to catch the killer. Repeating it now harms EMU and undercuts what little moral and managerial legitimacy that they still possess.
Most EMU administrators, of course, had nothing to do with the cover up, and most of them do not echo any defense of the huge errors and lies told by EMU officials in Welch hall. I wish it to be clear that my comments here are not aimed at all EMU officials.
Peace. And justice.
I too hope that Alum’s comment is not representative of the ethos of the current administration, however much it has been in the past. It is truly astonishing to me that people would still aver that EMU can hold itself above the law–federal law no less. It makes our administration seem vigilante, if not outright nihilistic.
If EMU ever again defies federal law (and basic morals and plain good sense) by lying to parents or by leaving students oblivious that a murder and rape suspect is roaming free on campus, we will never again recover our reputation.
The Newsmakers link sends you to the Expensive Mistakes article…Just an FYI
all fixed now, Jessyca, thax.
Do you remember in January 2003 when a 17-year old Detroit Finney High School student drowned in the Jones pool at Eastern Michigan University? The Director of the Rec/IM building, Robert England, said Derrick Kelly might have a medical condition. Then, the EMU Echo reported he could have died from heart failure. Maybe this was a cover-up too? Geoffrey Fieger sued Lou Gianino, EMU, and the lifeguards involved. What was the outcome of that suit?
Dear Mosh,
I found the below link to your inquiry very informative.
Apparently, EMU was not a defendant of the lawsuit… However, EMU was irresponsible for not hiring an up to date Michigan Health Code certified Life Guard.
http://www.usascan.com/water/
It appears that EMU’s emergency pool phone was not working during the time of the tragedy and a near tragedy on April 10th, 2003.
I hope the phone works now and I also hope we now have trained lifeguards as well as posted certification and CPR signs near the Pool. All of which are Michigan Health Code standards.
It is amazing how many watchdog groups there does exist regarding 1 Michigan university and all of its documented examples of scandals.