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NEWS
Thursday, August 13, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Multiple campus buildings
flood following heavy rain
Water damage causes
closures in Angell
Hall, North Quad,
CCRB
By LYDIA BARRY
For the Daily
Multiple University buildings
were flooded after a severe thun-
derstorm
Monday
afternoon.
According to the Department of
Public Safety and Security, the
specific buildings damaged and the
extent of those damages remain
unknown at this time.
“There were several buildings
on campus that were flooded today
because of the torrential down-
pour,” said Diane Brown, DPSS
public information officer. “I don’t
have any reports about which of
the specific buildings, nor do I
know if it was just water coming in
through the door, or if it was more
substantial, and we won’t know
any of that tonight.”
Daily reporters witnessed water
in North Quad and the CCRB.
According to the LSA Facebook
page, three classes were relocated
Monday night due to flooding in
Angell Hall.
According to Occupational Safe-
ty and Environment Health at the
University, flooding has impacted
the campus greatly over the past
few years.
“The University of Michigan
(U-M) has experienced a signifi-
cant amount of flooding in recent
years, affecting over 10 percent of
its 500 buildings across the 1,500
acre Ann Arbor campus,” the
OSEH website says. “Considering
the complexity of U-M’s campus,
the damage to facilities and equip-
ment caused by flooding can lead
to substantial problems.”
Many schools in
Michigan currently
make notification
voluntary
By LEA GIOTTO
Summer Daily News Editor
Republican United States Reps.
Matt Salmon of Arizona and Kay
Granger and Pete Sessions, both of
Texas, proposed a bill to Congress
that requests colleges and universi-
ties notify police after receiving a
report of sexual assault before the
school launches its own investiga-
tion.
The bill additionally states that
if the police are not informed of the
reported assault, the school is pro-
hibited from taking action.
The passing of this bill would
impact the way many of Michigan’s
public universities handle sexual
assault. Currently, only about half
of the state’s public universities
notify police as soon as a sexual
assault is reported; the University
is not one of them.
With the passing of the Univer-
sity’s new Sexual Assault and Mis-
conduct policy last August, victims
of sexual assault can decide for
themselves whether or not they
wish to launch a criminal investi-
gation of their case, which would
then be handled independently by
the University Police Department
or the Ann Arbor Police Depart-
ment.
One of the groups advocating for
the bill is the Fraternity and Soror-
ity Political Action Committee,
a political group in Washington,
which aims to preserve and and
defend greek life experience.
“Criminal
acts
should
be
addressed by the police,” Kevin
O’Neill, the group’s executive
director, told the Detroit Free
Press.
Certain victims’ rights and
sexual assault survivor groups say
required police involvement may
create further emotional turmoil
for the victim of the assault, as
many often feel re-victimized by
the criminal justice system.
They note the bill would vio-
late the federal Title IX act, which
states colleges and universities
must investigate sexual assault and
misconduct claims.
According to the Detroit Free
Press, some survivors of sexual
assault feel their cases were not
handled seriously when only pur-
sued by university administrations,
but that they fear the emotional
turmoil often accompanied when
there is police and judicial involve-
ment.
The proposed bill would also
allow universities to choose which
standard of evidence they would
like to use when considering a
sexual assault case. Currently, the
government requires a “prepon-
derance of the evidence” standard
to be used by universities in each
case. This standard is more easily
proven than the “beyond a reason-
able doubt” standard used within
the criminal justice system.
University
spokesman
Rick
Fitzgerald told the Detroit Free
Press that the University will
anticipate the outcome of the bill,
but noted the University does take
several measures on its own when
handling sexual assault cases.
“Under our policy, the Universi-
ty already takes interim measures
such as moving one party out of a
residence hall that the two par-
ties may share or changing class
schedules,” Fitzgerald said. “In
addition — and consistent with
current federal guidance — the
University is permitted to delay
temporarily its fact finding during
the evidence gathering phase of a
criminal investigation, although
the University may not delay until
the entire criminal investigation is
complete.”
Bill would require
colleges to notify
police after sexual
assault is reported
AMANDA ALLEN /Daily
Workers vacuum up flood water caused by recent heavy rains in the basement of North Quad on Monday.
DISCUSSING WITH THE DINGE LLS
AMANDA ALLEN /Daily
Former Congressman John Dingell and current Congresswoman Debbie Dingell discuss Medicare and Medicaid systems
with researchers from the University at the Ford School on Tuesday.