When smart college people do dumb things...

OK, not smart college people, but at Eastern Michigan University -- a school always rife with the Hillbilly Mafia in Ypsilanti Township and friends of a former executive vice president and now one specific regent. The VP is slimy, the copy is just overmatched.
This coverup was so blatant and sloppily handled that a job in the Bush Administration awaits all those involved...

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070609/NEWS02/706090321 (link shows pdf of investigation)

EMU cover-up broke the law
Inquiry finds officials deceptive

June 9, 2007

BY DAN CORTEZ and KRISTEN JORDAN SHAMUS

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

An independent investigation found that several Eastern Michigan University officials deceived the public, withheld information and violated federal law to cover up the on-campus killing of a student.

A report released Friday from Detroit law firm Butzel Long P.C., which conducted the investigation, said university officials quickly learned foul play was a possibility in the death of Laura Dickinson. Despite that information, the university issued a statement the next day stating that "there is no reason to suspect foul play."

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Among the acts highlighted in the report was a university official's decision to shred a detailed police report, the university's violation of federal law by not telling students that Dickinson may have been killed when there was reason almost immediately to suspect it, and the university's standing by the initial claims until someone was charged in the slaying.

"The trust placed by people in the campus community with the university was violated in a very real and personal way," the report summary read.

"Instead of providing a warning, or even no statement at all, the university's statement dismissed the possibility of foul play and offered assurances of safety."

Apologetic university leaders expressed disappointment in their handling of the case and said the report will lead to personnel changes and new policies for how to handle similar situations in the future.

"Their findings aren't pretty," said Jim Stapleton, a member of the Board of Regents.

Dickinson, 22, of Hastings was found dead Dec. 15 in her Hill Hall dorm room on the Ypsilanti campus by a maintenance worker looking for the source of a foul odor. Investigators arrested 20-year-old Orange Taylor III in February and charged him in her killing. He is due in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on Wednesday.

University Vice President for Student Affairs James Vick and Director of Public Safety Cindy Hall had different explanations for why Vick shredded a detailed police report a week after Dickinson was found dead. Vick said he did so after Hall told him to, but Hall denied that.

The report also says EMU violated the Clery Act, a federal law that mandates schools inform the public of crimes or criminals that might pose ongoing threats to students. The investigation found that the university didn't have a standard procedure on how to notify the public about a killing on campus.

"This is potentially the single-most egregious violation of the Clery Act ever," said S. Daniel Carter, senior vice president of Security on Campus, a nonprofit group that advocates for campus safety issues. His organization filed a complaint with U.S. Department of Education, which is investigating EMU's conduct.

The independent report was accompanied by 41 exhibits totaling more than 400 pages and including a document from Vick's lawyers that argues he was unjustly suspended after Taylor's arrest.

 

dan cortez. why does that ring a bell? is he a former sports guy?

 

Vick will get a nice golden parachute out, land in some other political job thanks to "friends" and no charges will ever be filed against him, because by the time they would have been filed he will be long gone.

Apologies to Hank Scorpio, but EMU is, has and always will be a backwards ass place concentrating more on patronage and less on education.

 

I believe he was a VJ on MTV in the 90s. I really hope it's not the same person.

 

The basis for this thread makes the assumption that administrators at a public school or university are(a) competent, (b) smart and (c) not self-righteous, self-serving, elitist assholes.

They aren't. Not even close.

 

Well played.

 

Cortez went to Indiana and through the Sports Journalism Institute in 2001.

 

Unreal. Changes now are a little like closing the barn door after the horse got out, but maybe it would prevent it from being repeated in the future. Good for the reporters who uncovered this crap.

 

No, in this case it will be more like Kent State going on probation for Alabama's fuckup...
There wasnt anything uncovered; it was an ongoing report.
And at EMU, it will happen again.

 

Why do people send their kids there?

 

right. on. the. nose.

nice call roth. thanks. that bothered me all day.

 

The MTV VJ is Dan Cortese actually.