8A - Monday, November 16, 2009

The Michigan Daily - michigandzily.com

Concerns abound for DPS Oversight Committee .

From Page 1A
mittee's meetings and the number
of grievances reviewed each year.
This catalog of systemic prob-
lems calls into question whether a
committee tasked with holding the
campus police accountable has ful-
filled that role and whether it even
can.
A LACK OF STUDENT
REPRESENTATION
Many of the most serious con-
cerns about the DPS Oversight
Committee rest with the two seats
devoted to students.
Sometimes vacant for months at
a time and arguably filled in a way
that violates the provisions of the
state law, the two student seats on
the committee have historically
been mishandled by the commit-
tee and by the Michigan Student
Assembly, which has been tasked
with filling the seats.
Since the committee's establish-
ment, a formal election involving all
students at the University has never
occurred, according to MSA Presi-
dent Abhishek Mahanti. Instead,
already-elected MSA representa-
tives are appointed to the commit-
tee based on an internal application
process and assembly-wide confir-
mation.
Stephen Hipkiss, chair of the DPS
Oversight Committee and facil-
ity manager at the Harlan Hatcher
Graduate Library, said this is war-
ranted because the student body
elects MSA representatives.
"The thought there is that they
are in fact elected," Hipkiss said.
"They're elected to MSA, and MSA
selects them from there."
When presented with the state
statute and a description of the Uni-
versity's current practices, inde-
pendent attorneys The Michigan
Daily spoke with disagreed with
this theory.
According to David Einstandig,
an attorney for Thav, Gross, Stein-
way & Bennett P.C. in Bingham
Farms, Mich., the practice of MSA
representatives electing the com-
mittee members doesn't comply
with the state statute.
"(The statute) doesn't say elected
by the 'student representatives,'
it says the 'students,"' Einstandig
said. "it appears that the law is not
being complied with. The statute
appears not to give the right to elect
to MSA. The right is given to the
student body. MSA is not the stu-
dent body."
Jonathan Jones, an attorney who
practices in Southfield, Mich., had a
similar stance. He said that state law
dictates that all students participate
in the election and that the appoint-
ment of representatives by MSA
denies students their right to vote.
"Unless it's placed in a formal bal-
lotwhere the entire student body has
an opportunity to nominate some-
one and/or vote for nominated can-
didates, then the students are being
deprived of the voice that the statute
gives them," Jones said.
Currently, student body-wide
elections for MSA happen twice a
year.
Einstandig said the University
could solve the student voting issue
by creating a similar process to
elect student representatives on the
DPS Oversight Committee.
Mahanti disagreed with the fea-
sibility of holding an election spe-
cifically for representatives to the
DPS Oversight Committee. If MSA
were to do this, he said, it would

also have to organize an election
for representatives serving on other
University committees and that the
election would not generate many
votes.
"We have enough problems as it
is getting voter turnout and enough
candidates to fill our slates," Mah-
RATKOWIAK
From Page 1A
field garbage this week. There's not
room for that in Ann Arbor, espe-
cially not now.
Former coach Lloyd Carr largely
refused to address those controver-
sies - he would just say the mat-
ter was being handled internally.
Carr's intimidating staredowns
with reporters and his refusal to
answer off-the-field questions
may have been frustrating for the
media, but it sure kept the focus on
the field.
Last year, during Ohio State
week, Rodriguez announced Zion
Babb and Jason Kates had left the
team. Artis Chambers broke the
news via Facebook that he was "no
longer a Wolverine," and it was
heavily rumored Sam McGuffie
was close behind. That kind of dis-
traction duringthe biggest week of
the season is ridiculous.
Even more disturbingly, it seems
like Rodriguez still hasn't learned
to control that.
This season, in addition to hav-

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ssembly itself. Yet two grievances did appear
while the lack of student before the committee during the
ide elections compromises six months when both student posi-
e representation of students tions were vacant. Since there were
ommittee, the gap between no alternate student representa-
aduation of representa- tives, Hipkiss said the committee
a particular year and the met with only four members to dis-
ment of new students to the cuss the grievances.
tee eliminates that repre- Einstandig said the University
n altogether. appears to be violating state law by
er MSA representative Bret having only four members serve on
s was a DPS Oversight Com- the committee for half a year.
representative who also "It appears then that the require-
the MSA Campus Safety ment of the committee - (the stat-
ssion. He graduated last ute) says 'shall,' and shall means it
er, leaving one student seat must - include two students, and
committee vacant for more therefore the committee is func-
'ur months - until Cassie tioningcontrary to the requirement
n, the other student repre- in the statute," he said.
'e, graduated in May. From Mahanti said what occurred this
int until Nov. 3 of this year, summer was a "special case" and
ere no students on the com- that in the past, both members have
not graduated in the same year. But
n MSA meeting Nov. 3, the Mahanti said he understands the
ly voted to approve two new concern about not having students
representatives: LSA junior on the committee.
t Chaparala and Engineer- "In this special case, I do think
homore Prithvi Murthy. it's kind of inappropriate to not
'arala said last week that he have student representation on a
aware there was no student committee that does need student
ntation on the committee in representation," he said.
.s months. He said the stu- He added that MSA would try
ice is "critical" to achieve to amend the problem so it doesn't
e representation of opinions continue to occur.
iscussing grievances against University spokesman Rick
Fitzgerald said he didn't know there
was a period in the year during
which students were not serving on
the committee. He said it's MSA's
responsibility to solve the problem
The statute) because the University doesn't deal
with the student election process.
doesnt say "It's really up to MSA to make
those selections for the student rep-
resentatives," Fitzgerald said.
he 'student Fitzgerald also had a different
perspective on the legality of the
resentatives' process than Einstandig and Jones.
I He said that the law doesn't spell
it says the out a specific process for how to
nominate or elect student represen-
students."' tatives. Therefore, the University
has let MSA handle elections since
MSA has an established process for
selecting representatives to serve
on various committees.
use there is no formal pro- "The University's position is that
replace graduating stu- that makes MSA's process consis-
presentatives, it is not clear tent with the state law that says
r the DPS Oversight Com- 'nominated and elected,"' Fitzger-
or MSA is responsible for ald said.
sure the seats are filled. As The most recent committee
of that confusion, the seats meeting was last August, at the
tay unfilled for extended request of someone who filed a
of time. complaint. Hipkiss said the com-
n interview late last month mittee offered the complainant an
the new representatives opportunity to wait for two student
ppointed, MSA Administra- representatives to be seated on the
ordinator Anika Awai-Wil- committee before the complaint
aid she didn't know if the was reviewed, but the complain-
positions had been filled. ant wanted to settle the dispute as
ams said University admin- quickly as possible, and the Univer-
e committees - like DPS sity's General Counsel allowed the
ht - sometimes inform complaint to proceed.
tat they are in need of rep- "General Counsel advised that
tives. But the committee if the remaining four could meet, it
t done so, which Williams would be OK," he said.
why the seats may have been But Einstandig said under the
statute, the committee cannot
hese seats are vacant ... I make decisions without the student
say it's most likely because representatives.
S Oversight Committee has "The committee must have those
ormed us that we need to representatives as stated," he said.
SA representatives for their "Without them, I don't see how it
ttee," she said. could proceed."

Committee on University Affairs
and executive committees of the
College of Literature, Science and
the Arts, the College of Engineer-
ing, the Medical School and the
School of Education. Once elected,
each faculty committee member is
supposed to serve a two-year term.
However, according to a Uni-
versity response to a Freedom of
Information Act request on July 17
that was obtained by The Michigan
Daily, the last faculty member to
be elected to the committee was in
April 2000.
SACUA chair and Engineering
Prof. Michael Thouless admitted
in an e-mail interview that SACUA
has not held an election for the DPS
Oversight Committee since 2000.
"It appears that the DPS Over-
sight Committee simply fell off the
radar screen of SACUA, its previ-
ous chairs and the four college
executive committees that are also
charged with overseeing the nomi-
nation process," Thouless wrote.
He wrote that the terms of office
are not clearly stated in the pro-
cedures and that since the same
elected faculty members are. still
serving on the committee, "nothing
triggered another election or the
attention of SACUA."
Thouless first found out about
the election violations in May,
when he became chair of SACUA
and after he worked on an audit
of all the committees SACUA is
responsible for.
"When we found the current
procedures, I was concerned by the
fact that they are vague in places,
and the election rules are rather
cumbersome," he wrote. "(They) do
not clearly define terms of office and
do not make it clear how to ensure
all members of the UM community
get a voice in the elections."
Thouless wrote that he has been
communicating with the Univer-
sity's Human Resources Office to
rewrite some of the procedures in
order to solve some of the problems.
Tim Wood, senior director of
Human Resources, said his office
is mainly in charge of elections for
staff representatives on the com-
mittee, but that he didn't know why
there has not been an election for
faculty representatives since 2000.
"I don't know if it's a lack of inter-
est in people participating or they
just haven't done it," Wood said.
Thouless wrote that drafting a
new procedure may "take some time"
and that SACUA may hold an election
despite the unclear procedures.
"If it looks like the re-drafting
process is going to take too long,
and SACUA decides holding a new
election is more urgent than clean-
ing up the rules that govern the
DPS oversight committee, we may
decide that we need to try and
organize one using the existing, but
somewhat unsatisfactory proce-
dures," he wrote.
SELECTIVE STAFF VOTING
Some concerns - including legal
concerns - surround the process
by which staff members elect rep-
resentatives to the DPS Oversight
Committee. Though staff members
have been elected to the committee
on a regular basis, voting restric-
tions and low election participation
underscore how staff representa-
tion on the committee suffers from
flaws similar to those of the student
and faculty representation.
The DPS Oversight Committee
bylaws mandate that both union
and non-union staff members

nominate their peers. From there,
the University's Office of Human
Resources conducts staff elections
for one position each year - alter-
nating between union and non-
union groups.
The concerns arise, though, from
the fact that only members in each

group may vote for their respective
labor representative.
Jones said this election policy
also appears to violate the state
statute because different members
of the staff are excluded from exer-
cising their right to vote each year.
But Wood said the election pro-
cedure does not breach the law.
"I think we're confident that
it's appropriate that it's just a split
between the unionversus non-union
seat," Wood said. "Each employee
has the right to vote. It's just which
election they're voting in."
The last staff election was held
in June 2009 to elect a union repre-
sentative. While elections are con-
ducted in a timely manner, there
has been a great deal of variation in
voter participation during the last
few years.
The FOIA response from the Uni-
versity on July 17 reveals that there
were 84 votes in the 2009 election
for a union representative. How-
ever, in2008, there were 1,521 votes
for a non-union representative.
Hipkiss said he didn't know why
there was such a large difference in
the votes.
"The election for the (non-union)
position seems much more straight-
forward, and to my knowledge the
only one that is announced in the
University Record priorto the actu-
al soliciting of votes," he said.
Wood also did not know why there
was a disparity of more than 1,400
votes. He said one explanation may
be the difference in the amount ofeli-
gible voters. But numbers from a July
2009 Human Capital report show
thatthousandsofmorestaffmembers
could be voting in each election.
According to the report, the
University's Ann Arbor campus
employs 27,464 staff members.
About 6,982 staff members belong
to a union, and 20,482 do not belong
to a union.
These numbers demonstrate a
very low voter turnout. And though
the number of union and non-union
staff fluctuates from year-to-year,
there was similarly low turnout in
each election. For non-union staff
only 1,521 votes were cast in 2008
out of a potential voter pool similar
to the staff's current size of 20,482.
And for union staff, only 84 votes
were cast in 2009 out of a potential
voter pool similar to the staff's cur-
rent size of 6,982.
Though these numbers do not
violate the state law or the commit-
tee's bylaws, they raise concerns
about how aware staff members are
of the committee's existence and
how well the votingprocess reflects
the concerns of its constituents.
Fitzgerald admitted that the
University may need to look into
restructuring the election process
for students, faculty and staff.
"Maybe it's time to kind of look
at those established processes and
review whether they need some
updating or changing," he said.
SPORADIC MEETINGS
Compoundingthe problems with
elections and representation are
concerns about the body's everyday
functioning.
Infrequent meetings, an agenda
thinned out by DPS's internal com-
plaint processes and little aware-
ness of the body have limited the
DPS Oversight Committee's role as
a check on the campus police.
According to the committee's
bylaws, the DPS Oversight Com-
mittee must meet monthly unless
otherwise determined by the com-

mittee chair. Hipkiss said the com-
mittee meets "as needed" - when a
complaint is filed. He added that it's
not unusual for the committee to
meet only once a year.
"If there are no complaints filed
with us, there's not much more for
us to discuss," he said.

Chaness said that durirg his
time on the committee, he attended
one meeting per semester, which he
thought was sufficient.
"It's overkill if we're constantly
asking (DPS) for clarificatim on
things,"-he said. "As long as ve're
satisfied with what they're coing
then there really isn't any nee for
us to step on their feet and get in the
middle of their work."
Other than presenting infosma-
tion as requested, DPS spokeswom-
an Diane Brown said DPS doesnot
play a role in the decisions of the
committee.
"We're only requested to corte at
their request - whenever that is -
to discuss whatever it is that they
are asking for, and that changes all
the time," she said. "Not that they
meet all that often, but we are at
their bidding."
Most of the time, Chaness said
the committee heard complaints
from people who said they were
mistreated by a police officer at a
traffic stop or didn't like the way
they were treated while issued a
minor in possession.
But in the past, the committee
has received more delicate griev-
ances. After four years of inactiv-
ity, the committee received its first
grievances in 1996. One of those
grievances received in 196, came
after John Matlock, assitant vice
provost and director of tle Office of
Academic and Multicultral Initia-
tives, was arrested.
Matlock was chaged with
assaulting a DPS officert the Cen-
tral Campus Recreation Building,
where he was officiatirg a basket-
ball game sponsored b the Black
Volunteer Network - aUniversity
student group. Matlocli contended
that the officers treatd him in a
disrespectful manner because of
his race. The charges egainst Mat-
lock were eventually dopped.
Following the Matlck incident,
the committee looked nto why it
had not received morezrievances.
It found that DPS recived about
10 complaints each yer, none of
which were filed as griences with
the committee.
In a 1996 Investigatnn of Poli-
cies and Practices of Ie Depart-
ment of Public Safety ad Security
report, the DPS Oversigt Commit-
tee recommended that he Univer-
sity's Office of the Geneal Counsel
hire an attorney to advie the com-
mittee on legal issues ad that the
committee receive all omplaints
and grievances reported o DPS.
Though an attorney as never
been hired to provide dvice, the
director of DPS gives n annual
report of all complaints snt to the
oversight committee.
However, according ton Oct. 9
University response to aFreedom
of Information Act requesthat was
obtained by the Daily, IPS gave
no annual complaint or Frievance
reports for 2007 and 2008The last
known report was for 200
Hipkiss confirmed DPShas not
yet given a report for 2009.
He added, though, thatPS fields
about eight to 12 complains a year,
and the committee deals vith an
annual average of two gravances
each year.
He said the committeedoesn't
hear more grievances becase peo-
ple choose not to file them.
"Why they do that is a mtter of
speculation," he said.
Chaness said the grivances
brought to the committee se usu-
ally from people who drectly
contacted the committee trough

e-mail or by phone, with te rest
coming from DPS.
"Typically, DPS took are of
internal stuff, and we didn't lave to
get involved because we wee sat-
isfied with their investigatin and
what they came to the concusion
of," he said.

However, Hipkiss - who has
chaired the committee for the last
10 years - said late last month that
the committee had been waiting to
find out from MSA who the replace-
ments would be weeks before the
appointments occurred.
Chaness said student vacancies
on the committee don't cause a
problem unless a major complaint is
filed during the transition period.
"I hope that somebody on MSA
is getting word if there has been a
complaint or anything, and I hope
that they would ask for a student
representative before they took
further action," he said, "but unless
something comes up, it's not an
ing a coach who still laments about
all the "drama" instead of simply
refusing to address it, Michigan
also has a publicity-happy quarter-
back who is great at sending Wol-
verine Nation into a frenzy. There's
no reason for Forcier to text ESPN.
com's Pat Forde on Friday night to
say, "NO!", he's not transferring.
It's also not appropriate for him
to tell the world after Saturday's
game about the details of a dis-
agreement with his coaches.
It's supposed to be about "the
team, the team, the team," right?
Well, the Wolverines' freshman
quarterback definitely didn't sub-
scribe to that this week, and that
adds up to nothing but trouble for
a Michigan team that desperately
needs to focus. If Forcier really
wants to lead his seniors to a bowl
game, Rodriguez needs to manage
the Tate Forcier sideshow much
better than he has.
"I've been herefor one ofthem. So
that's the only one I can really com-
ment on, They've got one in a row on

MISSING FACULTY
ELECTIONS
Another key concern about the
DPS Oversight Committee's prac-
tices is the fact that the faculty seats
have not been filled by election in
nine years, which runs contrary to
the bylaws' procedures.
According to DPS Oversight
Committee's bylaws, faculty mem-
bers are supposed to vote for two
representatives from a pool of four
candidates. These candidates are
chosen by a nominating committee
of five faculty members appointed
by the chair of the Senate Advisory
us,from whatI've seen."
- Rodriguez, talking about
Michigan's five-game losing streak
after last year's Ohio State game
Rodriguez may continue to
ignore history, but he'll continue
to look ignorant. It doesn't matter
if he wasn't here for the first four
losses --he needs to stop discount-
ing the fact that the Wolverines
haven't won against the Buckeyes
since 2003. Taking the approach
that he has only "been there for
one of them" is the wrong way
to show his team how much this
game really matters.
After all, educating the team on
the importance of series history
has proven to be a difference-
maker - at the expense of the Wol-
verines. First-year Purdue coach
Danny Hope was seven years old
in 1966, the last time the Boiler-
makers had won in the Big House.
Even in a game that isn't a rivalry,
he forced his players to look at the
past.
"We came here today to make
history as a football team," Hope
said after his team's comeback win.
"What a great motivating factor for

a football team, to know we were
coming up here to Ann Arbor, to
the Big House, to make history."
Caring about games he didn't
coach in worked pretty well for
him, huh?
This is Rodriguez's chance to
prove he really gets the emotion of
the rivalry, something he couldn't
have possibly understood before
last year's game. Saturday will be
about re-invigorating a matchup
that has fallen flat in recent years.
It's about making sure the seniors
aren't the third straight class to
leave without a win against Ohio
State. And, yes, it's about showing
that Rodriguez's Wolverines can
add a valuable chapter to the big-
gest rivalry in sports.
"I think everybody understands
the importance of this game,"
quarterbacks coach Rod Smith
said. "We're not idiots. We know
exactly what's at stake and who
we're playing. We understand."
For the sake of the team, I hope
that's truer than last year.
- Ratkowiak can be reached
at cratkowi@umich.edu.

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