A former University of Michigan 

vice president overturned a 1979 
decision to fire Robert Anderson, 
the late University athletic doctor 
accused of sexual misconduct, 
documents filed in U.S. District 
Court Thursday reveal. 

Thomas 
Easthope, 
former 

vice president of the Division of 
Student Life, said in a deposition 
that he took steps to fire Anderson 
upon learning of these allegations. 
Easthope later changed this claim, 
telling investigators he actually 
gave Anderson the option to resign. 
Easthope recounted his experiences 
working with Anderson, whom he 
described as “authoritarian” and 
“in a position of supreme authority” 
at the University, in a deposition 
held on July 28 and Aug. 4. 

According to the amended class 

action complaint, the University 
received “credible allegations” of 
Anderson’s behavior in 1979 but 
chose to conceal them, allowing 
Anderson to retain his position at 
the University until his retirement 
in 2003. Anderson died in 2008. 

Instead of returning to private 

practice, 
Anderson 
transferred 

from his role as director of health 
services to a position as senior 
physician with health services 
in 1980. His personnel file states 
the reason for this transfer as 
“resuming former position.”

“U of M had and has a duty to 

protect the health and safety of its 
students, and this duty includes 
protecting 
them 
from 
sexual 

assaults by U of M employees, and 
responding properly if a sexual 
assault does occur,” the complaint 
reads. “U of M violated this duty 
by failing to implement and enforce 
appropriate policies and procedures 
to prevent, and properly respond to, 
sexual assaults of its students.”

In his deposition, Easthope 

accused former Athletic Director 
Don Canham of ignoring the 
allegations and allowing Anderson 
to take on a more formal and 
increasingly 
influential 
role 

within the University Athletic 
Department. Canham served as 
athletic director from 1968 to 1988 
and is now deceased. 

“U of M, through its most senior 

administrators, employed a false 
artifice 
and 
misrepresentation 

that Anderson was an ethical 
and 
competent 
doctor,” 
the 

complaint says. “In that regard, U 
of M continued to hold Anderson 
out as a leader in its healthcare 
community.”

In March, the University hired 

the law firm WilmerHale to 
investigate the sexual misconduct 
allegations 
against 
Anderson 

after initially hiring Steptoe and 
Johnson LLP. WilmerHale is also 
the firm that released the 88-page 
report detailing its investigation 
into sexual misconduct by former 

Provost Martin Philbert, who 
was removed from his position in 
March.

University 
spokesman 
Rick 

Fitzgerald declined to comment 
on Easthope’s deposition due to 
the ongoing investigation into 
Anderson’s behavior.

“We don’t have anything to add, 

while the WilmerHale investigation 
remains active,” Fitzgerald wrote.

In June, the University began 

reaching out to more than 300,000 
former students who attended 
the University between the 1960s 
and early 2000s, asking them to 
report any interaction they may 
have had with Anderson. In a 
letter to the University community, 
Schlissel stressed the importance of 
protecting students’ privacy during 
the investigation. 

“Safeguarding 
the 

confidentiality of Dr. Anderson’s 
former patients is of paramount 
importance,” 
Schlissel 
wrote. 

“Accordingly, 
WilmerHale 
will 

not disclose any identifying or 
confidential patient information to 
the University, and the identity and 
confidentiality of Dr. Anderson’s 
patients will be protected from 
disclosure to others to the fullest 
extent permitted by law.”

University 
lawyers 

representing 
alleged 
victims 

of Anderson are preparing to 
speak at mediation next week, 
according to the Detroit News.

Because 
students 
with 

underlying 
conditions 
are 

more vulnerable to COVID-
19, they face new challenges 
while returning to campus this 
fall. About 70% of classes are 
being held entirely online, but 
some still require in-person 
attendance, which can force 
these 
students 
to 
decide 

whether to risk their health or 
their degree.

Kinesiology senior Akshay 

Luthra experienced a medical 
emergency when he was 15 
and has since experienced a 
weakening of his lungs and 
developed gastroparesis, among 
other issues. He said these 
conditions weaken his immune 
system and put him at risk not 
only for being more susceptible 
to COVID-19, but also make him 
more likely to experience life-
threatening consequences if he 
does contract it.

Luthra said though returning 

to campus may place him in 
danger, he felt the benefits of 
being back in Ann Arbor for his 
mental health were substantial 
enough to outweigh the risk.

“It had to do a lot with mental 

health, actually,” Luthra said. 
“(At home, in) the case of 
being high risk, it was a lot of 
just barricading myself in the 
house, and I definitely had a lot 
of low days this summer. I just 
needed to see and interact with 
new people, and so I was just 
like, ‘I’ll still be safe; I’ll still be 
in my apartment; I’ll be wearing 
a mask all the time when I walk 
outside, but I need to just do 
this for my mental health.’”

Luthra’s 
struggles 
with 

mental 
health 
during 
the 

pandemic were shared by many 
of his peers, and now that 
many students have returned 
to campus, social gatherings 
of unmasked students in large 
groups have begun popping up. 
Luthra said he relies on other 
students for his safety, and he 
wishes all of them abided by 
social distancing mandates.

“It’s easy to tell that people 

don’t care as much as they 
should,” Luthra said. “They 
think that they’re the safest age 
and don’t need to worry about 
it. (They think that) even if they 
get it, they’ll get over it, but the 
point of masks isn’t to save you, 

it’s to save people like me and 
people that are at a higher risk. 
It’s very selfish.”

Cheyanne 
Killin, 
LSA 

senior 
and 
the 
2019-2020 

Undergraduate Chair of the 
Services 
for 
Students 
with 

Disabilities student advisory 
board, said she chose not to 
return to campus due to pre-
existing conditions.

“The University has not only 

put the lives of chronically 
ill and high-risk students in 
jeopardy, but also reinforced the 
ableist notion that my life and 
my presence at this University 
do not matter,” Killin said. 
“I should not need to choose 
between not graduating with 
my degree and losing my life, or 
at best what’s remaining of my 
health.”

Killin said her friends are 

concerned for their health, 
even going as far as considering 
writing wills. 

“I have a couple of friends 

who are considering writing 
their 
wills 
because 
they’re 

either 
one 
semester 
away 

from graduation, or they have 
scholarship requirements that 
they can’t get out of. Everybody 
is kind of scrambling and afraid, 
and not being supported in any 
way,” Killin said.

University 
spokeswoman 

Kim 
Broekhuizen 
told 
The 

Daily that a good resource 
for 
students 
with 
medical 

conditions 
is 
the 
Campus 

Blueprint website. She also said 
these students should reach 
out to a few campus offices for 
more help.

“Students with disabilities 

and/or 
chronic 
health 

conditions —including those 
who are at increased risk for 
severe illness from COVID-19—
are encouraged to contact their 
professor/instructor, the Dean 
of Students Office (DOS), and/
or Services for Students with 
Disabilities (SSD) to explore 
educational arrangements or 
accommodations for in-person 
courses,” Broekhuizen wrote.

But Killin said she believes 

administration has not done 
enough to protect medically 
vulnerable students.

“The 
Administration’s 

silence is not only deafening 
but murderous, now that this 
incomplete plan has been put 
into action,” Killin said.

LSA senior Lauren Payne, 

who has a thyroid condition that 
causes her to have weakened 
immunity to the virus, echoed 
Luthra’s sentiments regarding 
social gatherings on campus.

“It’s 
really 
frustrating,” 

Payne said, “It doesn’t really 
feel like (my peers care about 
me) because people are being 
irresponsible and pretending 
it’s a personal health choice 
when it’s really a public health 
choice.”

Payne said there is ableism 

at play when students gather 
in large settings and how their 
acts further enable the virus to 
spread.

“They’re 
putting 
people 

at risk because they’ve lived 
most of their lives in positions 
of privilege and are healthy,” 
Payne said. “It’s never going 
to get better if we don’t get 
ourselves under control.”

Payne said she can’t utilize 

learning 
as 
well 
as 
other 

medically vulnerable students 
might because as a senior, 
she is mainly enrolled in labs, 
which require in-person work. 
Though Payne recognizes that 
her professor is supposed to 
comply with medical requests 
of online learning, she worries 
she won’t gain enough from 
that experience.

“I think that if I really 

wanted to get in touch with my 
professors, I could find ways to 
not go to the labs, but it would 
be pretty detrimental to my 
learning of the material,” Payne 
said.

Luckily, Payne is in the 

Program in the Environment 
and her classes take place in 
large outdoor spaces which 
allow her to remain more than 
six feet away from anyone 
else. Payne’s roommate, LSA 
senior Theodora Reynolds, is 
also a student in PitE and was 
supposed to have an in-person 
tutorial with her professor for a 
class she was taking.

Reynolds 
immediately 

expressed her concern with 
meeting 
in 
person 
due 
to 

Payne’s health risk. Reynolds 
said she assumed it would 
be an easy switch to attend 
their meetings via Zoom. Her 
professor, however, did not 
agree.

The University of Michigan 

is asking the state to intervene 
in graduate students’ ongoing 
strike in protest of the school’s 
reopening plans.

In an unfair labor practice 

charge filed with the Michigan 
Employment 
Relations 

Commission on Tuesday — 
the first day members of the 
Graduate 
Employees’ 
Union 

took to the picket line — the 
University requests that the 
commission order GEO to “cease 
and desist from unlawfully 
striking or conducting a work 
stoppage.” 

Lawyers for the University 

also 
urge 
the 
commission 

to 
require 
GEO 
to 
stop 

“repudiating” 
the 
union’s 

collective bargaining agreement 
and refrain from “violating its 
duty to bargain collectively” 
by 
demanding 
negotiations 

on “mandatory and/or illegal 
subjects of bargaining over the 
University’s objections.”

The filing is signed by Gloria 

Hage, the University’s senior 
associate general counsel, and 
Craig S. Schwartz of Butzel 
Long, a law firm with offices 
across Michigan as well as in 
Washington, D.C. and New 
York City. It names Sumeet 
Patwardhan, president of GEO, 
the union that represents more 
than 2,000 graduate student 
instructors 
and 
graduate 

student staff assistants.

The charge highlights that it 

is illegal for public employees to 
strike in the state of Michigan. 
GEO’s 
contract 
with 
the 

University, which was ratified 
in April, also prohibits members 
from participating in a work 
stoppage. 

In a Sunday night email 

regarding the strike, Provost 
Susan Collins described the 
work stoppage as unnecessary 
and unlawful.

“We do not believe it is 

necessary for GEO to strike,” 
Collins wrote. “We successfully 
reached an agreement with GEO 
in April on its entire collective 
bargaining agreement. GEO’s 
strike falls outside of that 
negotiation and is based on a 
number of issues, some of which 
have very little to do with the 
wages, hours, and working 
conditions of GSIs and GSSAs. 
A strike is not appropriate, as 
the primary impact will be on 
our students, particularly our 
undergraduate students.”

In 
a 
message 
to 

undergraduates 
sent 

Wednesday, Collins called the 
strike “disruptive, confusing 
and 
worrisome,” 
reiterating 

the illegality of the job action. 
Numerous deans at colleges 
across 
campus 
echoed 

these concerns in their own 
emails to faculty within their 
departments.

The union has been upfront 

about the illegality of the strike, 
even posting about it on Twitter. 
In a statement addressing U-M 
leadership’s opposition to the 
work stoppage, GEO elaborated 
on the risks of retaliation.

“If 
GEO 
strikes 
when 

the contract is in force, the 
organization may not be able 
to collect dues,” the statement 
reads. “We would also be open 
to lawsuits and could be forced 
to pay damages. If the contract 
is not in force, the likelihood of 
a lawsuit is lower, but UM could 
still get a court order for us to 
stop striking and if we do not 
obey it, the coordinators of the 
strike (the GEO officers) could 
be placed under arrest. GEO 
has done work stoppages in the 
past, and the university has not 
retaliated.”

The 
strike 
runs 
until 

Friday, with the potential for 
reauthorization if the University 
does not meet the organization’s 
demands. Despite Patwardhan’s 
support for a proposal from 
the University, GEO members 
rejected a deal on Wednesday 
night, arguing it failed to satisfy 
their platform.

In an email Friday, University 

spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald 
wrote that in “every case,” 
the 
school 
tries 
“to 
meet 

the interests of all employee 
unions through discussion and 
negotiating to an agreement.” 

“Part of the agreement from 

our recent contract negotiations 
with GEO was a promise on the 
union’s part that its members 
would not strike and leave their 
students without instruction,” 
Fitzgerald said. “It was only 
when they went against that 
promise that the university took 
additional action.” 

Fitzgerald added that the 

University “stands ready to 
continue discussions with GEO 
so that all students are able to 
continue their studies without 
further interruption.”

When asked about the next 

steps in the charge against GEO 
filed with MERC, Fitzgerald 
directed questions to the state 
commission.

MERC handles labor disputes 

involving public and private 
sector employees. It also weighs 
in on unfair labor practice cases. 

The chair of the body, Sam 

Bagenstos, is a professor at the 
University of Michigan Law 
School. Bagenstos, who was 
appointed by Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer in December 2019, did 
not respond immediately to a 
request for comment.

Schwartz, the outside lawyer 

signing onto the charge, has 
experience with labor conflicts 
in higher education.

In 2019, he helped Eastern 

Michigan 
University 
obtain 

the dismissal of unfair labor 
practice charges brought by 
the union representing EMU’s 

tenured 
and 
tenured 
track 

faculty. EMU “prevailed” after 
a hearing in front of MERC over 
four alleged violations of the 
Michigan Public Employment 
Relations Act, according to a 
press release from Butzel Long.

Schwartz 
referred 
The 

Michigan 
Daily’s 
request 

for comment to Fitzgerald. 
In an email, Fitzgerald said 
the University often looks to 
hire outside attorneys with 
experience in relevant matters.

“It’s 
not 
unusual 
at 
all 

for the university to engage 
attorneys outside of the Office 
of the General Counsel to 
handle specific matters within 
their 
areas 
of 
expertise,” 

Fitzgerald wrote. “They work 
in conjunction with attorneys in 
OGC.”

The 
law 
firm 
where 

Schwartz works has also been 
involved in the debate over the 
state’s COVID-19 restrictions. 
Butzel 
Long 
attorneys 

represented several Michigan 
CEOs who sent a letter in mid-
April pushing Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer to “reopen” the state 
and allow employees to return 
to work. The letter cited data 
indicating 
that 
Michigan’s 

COVID-19 cases had peaked. 
According to The New York 
Times, Michigan’s new daily 
case count peaked in early April, 
at 1,722 new cases on April 7. 

The CEOs noted how hard it 

was to “balance public health 
and the economy,” but argued 
when it comes to deciding 
between saving lives and saving 
jobs, “Michigan has enough 
moxie to do both at the same 
time.”

Whitmer later offered a path 

for reopening certain businesses 
following the firm’s efforts. 

COVID-19 precautions are 

at the heart of the graduate 
students’ strike in Ann Arbor. 
GEO has called to reduce the 
police presence on campus and 
cut the University’s ties to law 
enforcement. 

The 
unfair 
labor 
charge 

takes issue with these demands, 
calling 
the 
aspects 
of 
the 

platform 
related 
to 
police 

reform — such as demilitarizing 
the Division of Public Safety 
and 
Security 
and 
diverting 

funding to the department — 
“non-mandatory and/or illegal 
subjects of bargaining.”

The charge notes that GEO’s 

other demands are relevant 
to graduate students’ work 
conditions, but argues that 
GEO has “declined to seek 
a resolution of such issues 
through the grievance and 
arbitration 
procedures 
of 

the 
collective 
bargaining 

agreement.”

Managing 
News 
Editor 

Leah Graham can be reached 
at leahgra@umich.edu.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
 4 — Wednesday, September 16, 2020 

University requests state 
to intervene in ongoing 
graduate students’ strike

BECCA MAHON/Daily

Members of the University of Michigan’s Graduate Employee Organization protest the re-opening of the University, among other 
causes, outside near the Central Campus Transit Center Wednesday afternoon.

LEAH GRAHAM

Managing News Editor

Students with underlying 
conditions voice concerns

‘U’ files unfair labor practice charge against GEO with Michigan 
Employment Commission, asking for halting of work stoppage

Medical vulnerability leaves some questioning safety on campus

Testimony shows reversal 
in decision to fire Anderson

Documents reveal former U-M officials overturned action in 1979

LIAT WEINSTEIN

Daily News Editor

JENNA SITEMAN
Daily Staff Reporter

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

