She attempted to pass it
off as a menstrual period
to her GSI and her family.
However, Taylor does not get
her periods regularly and the
bleeding became the biggest
red flag of a potentially violent
experience
to
her
mother.
Taylor’s mother then reported
the incident to the University.
Now,
it’s
October.
Taylor’s
evidence
is
in,
and
her
statements
have
been collected. But she still
doesn’t have a verdict in her
case. And she has no idea
when she might receive one.
***
According
to
the
University’s
student
sexual
misconduct
policy,
here’s
what should have happened
when Taylor’s mother first
reported
the
incident
to
the
Office
of
Institutional
Equity
on
June
20,
2018:
Once a situation is reported
to OIE, the Title IX coordinator
makes an initial assessment
of the report and ensures the
claimant receives a written
explanation of resources and
options
available
to
them.
After the initial assessment,
a
coordinator
will
decide
whether to investigate the
case,
and
move
toward
a
formal resolution, or whether
to move directly into finding
alternative
resolutions
and
additional
remedies.
The
claimant’s wishes, the evidence
and the code of conduct all
play a part in the decision.
If
the
coordinator
decides the case should be
investigated, they’ll assign an
investigator, usually a member
of the Title IX staff, to the file.
The investigator meets with
the claimant, the respondent
(the alleged abuser) and any
relevant witnesses on separate
occasions
to
offer
them
the opportunity to present
information
and
evidence.
During these meetings, the
policy
dictates
both
the
claimant and the respondent
can have an “adviser” of their
choice — that’s code for a lawyer.
According to the policy, the
University tries to complete
every investigation within 60
days, though it acknowledges
extenuating
circumstances
might lengthen the timeline.
Regardless of the length, the
policy stipulates both parties
will
be
updated
regularly.
After
the
interviews
have
been
conducted
and
the
evidence
collected,
the investigator will write
what’s called a “preliminary
investigation
report”
that
includes
all
the
known
information.
Both
parties
can
review
the
draft
report, and they have five
days
to
submit
comments.
But
in
practice,
the
process isn’t so regimented.
After
Taylor’s
mother
called OIE, the investigation
officially commenced on June
20. Taylor said she immediately
requested a no-contact order,
which
meant
neither
she
nor her GSI could initiate
any
kind
of
contact
with
each other — not in person,
over text or on social media.
As per the U-M policy, OIE
senior
investigator
Daniel
Ferency was assigned to be
the investigator in the case.
Taylor said Ferency reached
out to her to ask if she wanted
to give a statement. They
exchanged emails to find a
time to meet, and like the
policy
mandates,
Ferency
alerted
Taylor
to
support
resources on campus she could
access if she wanted. He also
said she had the right to bring
a lawyer or any other support
person
to
their
meeting.
When she got to the meeting,
though, Taylor was caught
off-guard. A note-taker was
present at the meeting, taking
down her comments while
Ferency questioned her on her
experience. She said she wasn’t
given any warning there would
be a stranger in the room.
Shortly after the meeting
with Ferency, she left for a
summer study abroad trip.
It was taking a while for
her medical records to be
submitted
to
Ferency
as
evidence, and she emailed him
about it on June 27 to remind
him she was still working
on
getting
them
to
him.
“You should look out for your
statement
either
tomorrow
or Friday,” he replied to her
via
email
that
same
day.
However, Taylor didn’t hear
anything else from Ferency
until July 16 — over three weeks
after he said he would pass
along her statement for review.
“When we met on June 19,
2018, I mentioned that the
next step in the OIE process
would be for me to send you
a summary of your interview
statement for your review,”
Ferency wrote in his email.
“A copy of the summary is
attached. As we discussed, you
are not required to review this
summary. If you choose to
review it, it can be helpful to
have a support person present
… If you decide to review
this summary, the deadline
to provide any comments or
suggestions you may have is
July 18, 2018. If I don’t hear
from you by July 18, 2018, I
will assume you approve of the
statement as drafted, and will
move forward with the review.”
During
this
process,
Taylor
was
out
of
the
country,
in
another
time
zone,
without
anyone
who could be an effective
“support
person”
for
her.
Taylor said she found 15
mistakes in the report and
sent her corrections to the
investigator.
Eventually,
Ferency did grant her extra
time
to
make
corrections,
and
she
turned
in
her
revised copy of the statement
as soon as she was able.
The next time she heard
from Ferency was at the end
of August, just after the
60-day mark, when she shared
him on a Google document
containing screenshots of her
text messages with her GSI.
Shortly after, the school
year started. Taylor, who is
studying music performance,
had to audition for different
ensemble classes. One of them
is a required two-credit class.
To her horror, she was placed
in the same GSI’s band class.
After a back and forth with
OIE and SMTD administrators,
it
was
determined
Taylor
could get a waiver for the
performance
class,
which
meant
she
wouldn’t
need
to
fulfill
that
graduation
requirement.
She
said
it
was a devastating solution.
“That’s six hours a week of
rehearsal,” she added. “That’s
four or five concerts in a
semester. That’s opportunity
to perform your pieces, work
with current composers, to
go play other schools. I’m
losing all of that while he gets
to keep that and they don’t
see anything wrong with it.
(This is) my only option.”
According to Taylor, there
are other orchestras or bands
that need extra players, but she
hasn’t been asked to participate.
“Instead of asking me, they’re
asking other students that are
also not in orchestra but I don’t
know why they’re not asking
me because I have nothing,”
she
said.
“Those
students
are in band or something ...
The guy who is head of bands
here is, like, best friends with
him and he has made it very
clear that he does not like me
and does not support me.”
The director of bands is
Music prof. Michael Haithcock
— the GSI’s direct supervisor.
The Daily reached out to
Haithcock
for
a
comment.
He declined to comment via
email, and said he hoped the
GSI would sue The Daily
“if he is found innocent.”
***
The waiver meant Taylor and
her GSI would no longer have
to be in the same classroom.
But she still had other classes
in the music school, so she ran
into him around the building.
She recalled changing her
shoes in her car one morning
before class. While she was
sitting in the car, he pulled up
right next to her and sat there
staring for long enough that
Taylor became uncomfortable.
“I was pretty freaked out
so I called [SMTD Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion officer
Freyja Harris] … she found
me in my car and she actually
walked me all the way to a
practice room,” Taylor said.
She
also
had
a
piano
class
in
the
basement
of
the music school, and said
the GSI would sit outside
her
class
for
two
weeks.
“I
told
(SMTD)
Dean
(Mark) Clague and I know
that
Dean
Clague
had
to
say something to him more
than
once,”
Taylor
said.
“But eventually he stopped.”
Throughout
these
experiences at the beginning
of this school year, she was
not in regular communication
with
Ferency
or
anyone
from OIE. She and Ferency
exchanged emails on Sept. 5,
and he gave her directions on
how to enable her lawyer to
release medical forms on her
behalf. But Taylor still had a
lot of questions about how her
case was being handled, and no
one was offering her answers.
She finally turned to SMTD
administrators and informed
them of the situation. They were
upset to find OIE had given
administrators essentially zero
information on the situation
going into the school year.
Taylor said once she and
her mom got Clague up to
speed, they found him to be
very
helpful.
However,
he
could only do so much, and
by mid-September, the lack of
communication and the drawn-
out process finally prompted
her to request a different
investigator. On September 18,
Ferency emailed the student
to let her know her case had
been transferred to another
OIE
senior
investigator,
Suzanne
Quinn
McFadden.
The
student
was
hopeful
that things would speed up.
Instead, it was more of the
same. She didn’t hear anything
from McFadden until Oct. 5.
“I am writing to let you
know that I am now working
on your investigation with
OIE as your case was recently
transferred to me,” McFadden
wrote in an email on Oct. 5.
“I just wanted to check-in
with you and offer an update.
I am currently drafting the
preliminary
report
which
will be sent to you shortly.”
There was no follow-up to
let the student know what,
exactly,
McFadden
meant
by “shortly.” At the time of
publication of this article, the
student still has not received
the
preliminary
report.
“I don’t know. It’s been a
while and I just haven’t seen
it,” she said. “I haven’t even
seen
his
statement,
which
like, it started in June — we
should
at
least
have
each
other’s statements by now.”
On Oct. 12, Elizabeth Seney,
deputy Title IX Coordinator
for
Investigations,
emailed
the student to tell her the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit’s recent decision,
which determined that public
universities have to give accused
students the opportunity to
cross-examine
the
accuser
and witnesses at an in-person
hearing, will apply to her case.
According
to
an
email
interview
with
Jeffery
Frumkin,
the
newinterim
Title
IX
coordinator
and
senior director of OIE, the
University is still developing
the process for these hearings.
But this likely means this
particular investigation will
continue to be drawn out.
Taylor is wary of what
this process will look like.
“I don’t trust any process
coming from this school,” she
said. “I don’t want to do ‘the
cross-examination.’ But I also
don’t want him to get away free.”
SMTD is also becoming a
hostile environment for Taylor.
She said one of her professors
dismissed her sexual assault
claims during class when she
was absent during the first
few weeks of the fall semester.
She
also
said
Haithcock
blocked
her
on
Facebook.
But
she
did
have
some
positive
interactions
with
faculty. She confided in her
private music teacher about
her situation and also felt
like she had strong contact
with Clague. Clague referred
The Daily to Public Affairs
when reached for comment.
She is sometimes escorted
from her car and to classes
by Harris, SMTD Diversity,
Equity
and
Inclusion
officer, who Taylor said was
also
a
comforting
figure
in
the
administration.
Harris is unable to comment
on specific investigations due
to FERPA rules. She explained
to The Daily, however, that
while
her
role
rapidly
is
becoming a support system for
SMTD students and faculty,
she needs to remind them that
she is not always the point
person to go to because she
does not investigate claims.
“In order to be able to
support someone in my ongoing
role, I need to let them know
who is the right person to share
to,” she said. “I don’t want to
muddy the water — I want to
support them. So, it’s what I
tell them up front — you can
tell me anything but I am not
going to be the one to take you
to the rest of the process. It
depends on the situation. I am
trying not to create issues (for
the students) in their process.”
facing many students today is they
seem to orient themselves in the
absence of adequate historical
knowledge,” North said.
The culprits of this lack of
knowledge
among
youth,
in
North’s view, are the educational
institutions in which they are
taught.
“There is an utterly reactionary
climate that prevails in many of
the humanities departments of
many universities, such as the
University of Michigan,” North
said. “The prevailing philosophy is
postmodernism, which … is culled
from the basement of bourgeois
thought. It is the most backward,
reactionary
and
dishonest
of
all approaches to the study or
consideration of the past.”
North
also
criticized
the affirmative action policies
of many universities, which he
portrayed as “quota systems.”
He said the systems facilitate
competition among students and
divide society while competing for
access to higher education. The
Supreme Court upheld the state
of Michigan’s ban on affirmative
action policies in 2014, claiming the
U.S. Constitution does not give the
judicial branch the power to decide
whether race can be used as a fact
in the admissions process without
voter input.
“Students are forced to compete
for a limited number of positions,
with applications asking for race
and ethnicity … We know that
quota systems are being set up,”
North said. “There is no way a
quota system can ever be fair.”
North posited these campus
issues have much to do with the
economic standing of professors.
He said these wages for professors
make the educators unable to
understand
the
problems
of
students.
“If you’re a tenured professor …
your wealth is in the top 10 percent
and probably closer to the top 5
percent,” North said.
As a response, North encouraged
students to challenge this status
quo both at the University and
nationwide by engaging with
socialist theory.
“I think as young people
are drawn into social struggle
they will come to recognize
the incompatibility of what is
presented
on
campuses
from
genuine revolutionary scientific
theory,” North said.
North’s
criticisms
also
targeted
organizations
such
as
the
Democratic
Socialists
of America and contemporary
figures on the American left,
including Sen. Bernie Sanders,
I-Vt., and congressional candidate
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He said
his criticisms stemmed from their
insufficient opposition to American
foreign policy, as well as their focus
on identity politics.
“A
socialist
who
preaches
national
defense
is
a
petty
bourgeois reactionary at the service
of the king capitalism,” North said.
“When Bernie Sanders goes around
defending America (and) praising
Trump for defending America’s
borders, he exposes himself as
a petty bourgeois charlatan and
reactionary.”
North decried the inadequacy
of
today’s
leftist
parties
in
promoting a worldwide socialist
revolution, claiming the parties
veer from campaign promises
once elected.
LSA freshman Noah Streng
said he found the event interesting
and said engaging with socialist
theory has changed his worldview
since arriving at the University.
“I wish more people would
have come out to come see it,”
Streng said. “I started … learning
about socialism a lot more since
I got to college, and it’s really
changed my perspective on the
world pretty much upside down.”
Ang’s colleague on the study,
Tuo-Yen
Chen
of
Nanyang
Technological
University
in
Singapore, was also interested
in how social media could alter
pain’s role in depression.
“Social media has not been
considered
as
a
potential
intervention
strategy,”
Chen
said. “So, Shannon and I were
wondering
whether
utilizing
social
media
could
lessen
depression
among
individuals
with pain.”
With
the
onset
of
such
discomfort
among
elderly
individuals,
social
interactions
outside of the household naturally
become limited. Ang and Chen
sought to study how those affected
could potentially be influenced by
virtual interaction through social
media.
Before the study, Ang and Chen
hypothesized that social media
usage would be helpful in relieving
depression amid pain and that
people might already be using
social media to supplement their
own social networking.
The
basis
of
Ang
and
Chen’s research emerged from
the National Health and Aging
Trends Study, a publicly available
data set that gathers information
from more than 8,000 senior
citizen Medicare beneficiaries.
“The purpose of NHATS is to
foster research to guide efforts to
reduce disability, maximize health
and independent functioning and
enhance quality of life at older
ages,” Vicki Freedman, a research
professor
at
the
University’s
Institute for Social Research’s
Survey
Research
Center
and
a
co-principal
investigator
of
NHATS, said.
The survey asks its participants
general questions on if they
are
experiencing
feelings
of
depression, pain or have trouble
falling asleep. In addition to queries
on depressive symptoms, NHATS
also inquires about senior citizens’
online activities.
For the purpose of their study,
Ang and Chen focused mainly on
the responses to the single question
of if respondents had used a social
media site in the past month.
According to the survey, 17 percent
of respondents had used a social
networking platform in the past
month.
The Michigan Daily — www.michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 — 3
THE DR AFT
SARAH KUNKEL/Daily
The Draft, an exhibition by Esmaa Mohamoud, investigates the intangibility of Blackness through issues surrounding black represenation at the South Thayer Building.
DEPRESSION
From Page 1
TITLE IX
From Page 1
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
SOCIALISM
From Page 1