Big Ten university leaders — 

including University of Michigan 
President Mark Schlissel — used 
a private network exempt from 
public record laws to communicate 
about fall COVID-19 outbreaks 
on campus and the 2020 football 
season, 
the 
Washington 
Post 

reported Friday. 

Through 
public 
records 

requests, The Washington Post 
accessed 
emails 
between 
the 

chancellors and presidents of Big 
Ten universities. In these emails 
university officials asked to move 
their discussions to the Big Ten 
portal, a platform hidden from the 
public eye.

“Just FYI — I am working 

with Big Ten staff to move 
the 
conversation 
to 
secure 

Boardvantage web site we use for 
league materials. Will advise,” 
Schlissel wrote in an email to 

other Big Ten chancellors and 
presidents. 

Though each individual Big Ten 

university is subject to Freedom 
of Information Act laws, the 
conference as a whole represents 
a private, third-party entity not 
required to share their records. 

Despite a football season ridden 

with COVID-19 outbreaks and 
forced game cancellations, The 
Washington 
Post 
was 
unable 

to find evidence of significant 
discourse involving both coaches 
and 
administrators. 
There 
is 

no indication as to why Big Ten 
leaders reversed their original 
decision to cancel the season. 

Instead, from an exchange 

of emails from August 2020, 
The Washington Post identified 
university leaders expressing their 
shared concern to not disclose any 
information to the public. 

“Mark (Schlissel) and others 

— please note that anything that 
arrives in or is sent from my 
email can be requested as a public 

record. I know I’m not the only one 
for whom this is true,” University 
of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor 
Rebecca Blank wrote. 

In a direct private email back 

to Blank, Schlissel responded 
by suggesting they delete their 
emails. 

“becky, if you simply delete 

emails after sending, does that 
relieve you of FOIA obligations? 
I share your concern of course,” 
Schlissel wrote.

According to The Washington 

Post, there is not significant 
evidence that implies either Blank 

or Schlissel acted on this idea and 
deleted their communications. As 
Blank then informed Schlissel, 
the Freedom of Information Act 
prohibits 
public 
leaders 
from 

permanently 
deleting 
their 

messages. 

The Washington Post requested 

the release of all emails, including 
those 
sent 
over 
the 
private 

platform, but was unsuccessful, 
as 
university 
representatives 

said they belong to the Big Ten 
Conference. Many Freedom of 
Information Act experts, including 
David Cuillier, associate professor 
at University of Arizona, and 
Chip Stewart, professor at Texas 
Christian University, said these 
communications between public 
leaders on a third-party server 
can still be accessed by the public 
under the Freedom of Information 
Act.

Additionally, 
senior 
staff 

attorney 
at 
the 
Reporters 

Committee for Freedom of the 
Press and Freedom of Information 

Act expert Adam Marshall said 
to the Post he believed it was 
“troubling and wrong” for public 
leaders to try and evade public 
information laws in this way. 

In an email to The Michigan 

Daily Friday afternoon, University 
spokesman Rick Fitzgerald wrote 
Schlissel uses several different 
means of communication with 
colleagues, and the conversations 
in question were not moved to the 
Big Ten portal.

“U-M President Mark Schlissel 

regularly 
communicates 
with 

the presidents of other Big Ten 
universities in a variety of ways 
on many topics,” Fitzgerald wrote. 
“President Schlisel notes that this 
was simply a conversation among 
colleagues trying to help each 
other by sharing information on 
how to navigate a novel, shared 
challenge – COVID-19 on campus.”

Daily Staff Reporter Lillian 

Gooding 
can 
be 
reached 
at 

goodingl@umich.edu. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, March 10, 2021

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LILLIAN GOODING

Daily Staff Reporter

Big Ten university leaders used private, third-party 
platform to discuss fall reopening, football season

U-M President Mark Schlissel asked staff to move communications to keep them hidden from public eye

MADDIE FOX/Daily & ALEC COHEN/Daily 

University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel and other Big Ten university leaders 
communicated through a private network exempt from public record laws about campus 
COVID-19 outbreaks and the 2020 football season.

Schlissel: Well-being days 
don’t ‘solve the problem’
Announcements on Fall 2021 semester expected mid-March

The Michigan Daily sat down with 

University President Mark Schlissel 
March 2 to discuss the University of 
Michigan’s fall planning, well-being 
days and sexual misconduct processes. 
This interview has been edited and 
condensed for clarity.

Mark Schlissel: Things are 

actually going well now and the 
number of cases are coming down 
all across the country. The number 
of student cases are coming down, 
and staff and faculty (cases) have 
remained low. So, I just want to 
compliment and thank everybody 
for continuing to put up with the 
incredibly disrupted lifestyle for 
the sake of keeping as many people 
healthy until we can vaccinate 
everybody. I’m more optimistic now 
than I’ve been at any point in the last 
year. 

We’re 
also 
getting 
good 

compliance with the mandatory 
testing. Basically all of the dormitory 

students are complying, and then 
many off-campus students. We’re up 
to about 21,000 tests a week, and the 
percentage positive is quite low — it’s 
below 1% positive. As it gets warmer, 
it’s going to be easier too, as we’ll be 
able to spend more time outdoors, 
and it’s safer outside.

TMD: It’s common nowadays 

in college classes for students to 
be asked by their professors or 
instructors to self-evaluate their 
performance. As U-M’s President, 
what grade would you give yourself, 
out of 10, for your response to the 
COVID-19 pandemic now a year 
into it — especially when compared 
to other institutions of higher 
education?

MS: What we’re talking about 

is actually a group project — it’s not 
an individual project. It involves the 
leadership of the campus, our medical 
and public health experts, our faculty, 
our staff and then all of you. It’s not a 
project where any one person can be 
responsible or do it alone. 

We’ve 
had 
some 
successes, 

and other things haven’t gone as 
well. So, amongst the good news is 
students are progressing towards 
their degrees. Our enrollment is 

normal enrollment. Students whose 
families have run into difficulty, 
we’ve been able to help them stay in 
school by providing special financial 
aid. Our health system has done 
spectacularly well. We’re the largest 
public research university in the 
country that was shut down during 
the height of the epidemic, but we 
ramped up again. Our labs are at 75% 
capacity now, and we’ve published 
over 1,000 papers on COVID; so, a 
lot of things in that area are going 
well. Our public health experts are 
advising the state government — all 
of the government’s plans are based 
on our expertise — that feels good. 

The challenge is there have been 

lots of student cases in particular. 
When we do the tracing of those 
cases, the overwhelming majority 
are due to contacts being made 
off 
campus, 
usually 
in 
social 

circumstances, too high density and 
not being as rigorous about masks. I 
wish we had fewer cases, but we’ve 
only had two (brief) hospitalizations, 
so I’m glad that no one’s taken more 
seriously ill amongst our student 
community.

‘U’ ends hiring, salary freezes 

for fiscal year 2022

Board of Regents to vote on reinstating merit raise program at June meeting

Starting July 1, the University 

of Michigan will end its year-
long hiring freeze and employees 
will be once again eligible for a 
merit raise program, after the 
University halted both programs 
last April in response to lost 
revenue caused by the COVID-19 
pandemic. The Board of Regents 
will vote on reinstating these 
programs at their June meeting.

At the University’s weekly 

COVID-19 briefing on Feb. 26, 
Provost Susan M. Collins said the 
University’s financial situation is 
strong despite being dependent 
on how much money the state of 
Michigan allocates it in 2022. Last 
month, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer 
announced that the state budget 
would offer a 2% increase for 
Michigan’s 
public 
universities 

relative to the previous fiscal year.

“2021 total application volume 

is actually up about 26 percent 
compared to 2020,” Collins said. 
“Our current enrollment remains 
steady. The financial position of 
the University of Michigan has 

also stabilized.”

But 
Collins 
said 
the 

University’s finances will remain 
constrained as units such as 
University Housing and Michigan 
Athletics continue to suffer from 
lost revenue. Despite that, she 
said, the University is prioritizing 
efforts to support faculty and staff 
affected by the pandemic.

Collins 
also 
said 
a 
merit 

increase program for faculty will 
be implemented for the upcoming 
fiscal year after the 2020 program 
was scrapped due to the pandemic.

William McAllister, executive 

manager for transportation and 
waste management, told The 
Michigan Daily that the merit 
increase program reaffirmed his 
confidence in the University’s 
financial situation.

“To 
hear 
Provost 
Collins 

mention that there’s going to 
be some sort of modest merit 
increase… 
further 
solidified 

the feelings I had about (the 
University’s financial position),” 
McAllister said. “It just shows 
what we did as employees… 
(that) made a huge difference 
financially for the University, 
and I think a lot of people look at 

this as, ‘hey, we did our part,’ and 
now the University is going to do 
their part by reinstating the merit 
program.”

In an email to Michigan 

Medicine staff published in the 
University 
Record, 
Marschall 

Runge, executive vice president 
for medical affairs, said the 
hospital would reinstate several 
of its own benefits programs, 
including paid time off, merit and 
competitive pay raises, tuition 
reimbursement and departmental 
professional 
development 

programs. Michigan Medicine 
restarted its retirement match on 
Jan. 1.

“You have played a critical role 

in helping Michigan Medicine 
return to routine operations and 
a stable and positive financial 
outlook for the current fiscal 
year,” Runge wrote to hospital 
employees. 
“Thank 
you 
for 

your ongoing commitment to 
our mission of advancing care 
for Michigan and the world, 
especially during the peaks and 
valleys of COVID-19.”

DOMINIC COLETTI

Daily Staff Reporter

Second lawsuit against U-M OIE director 
alleges mishandling of Title IX case 

while at University of Nebraska

First suit accused Tamiko Strickman of violating sex discrimination and civil rights law at UNL

Another lawsuit was filed Feb. 

28 against Tamiko Strickman, 
associate vice president of the 
University of Michigan’s Office of 
Institutional Equity, alleging she 
and other University of Nebraska-
Lincoln personnel mishandled 
a student’s sexual misconduct 
report. The first lawsuit, filed in 
July 2020, accused Strickman of 
violating sex discrimination and 
civil rights law at UNL. 

The 
July 
2020 
lawsuit 

also 
states 
that 
Strickman 

was terminated from UNL in 
December 2019, a claim that 
both 
University 
of 
Michigan 

spokesman Rick Fitzgerald and 
UNL spokesperson Leslie Reed 
denied to The Daily in July. The 
suit names nine current or former 
UNL students as plaintiffs.

Strickman did not respond to 

The Daily’s request for comment 
in time for publication. 

Strickman previously served 

as the UNL interim Title IX 
coordinator and director of the 
UNL 
Office 
of 
Institutional 

Equity 
and 
Compliance, 
but 

she left in 2019 under disputed 
circumstances. 

The February lawsuit, filed 

by 
Title 
IX 
lawyers 
Karen 

Truszkowski 
and 
Elizabeth 

Abdnour, details a new set of 
allegations against Strickman and 
other UNL personnel for their 
handling of a former graduate 
student’s 
report 
of 
alleged 

harassment. The student alleges 
that a professor harassed her 
while she was enrolled in a Ph.D 
program at UNL. A copy of the 
lawsuit was obtained by The Daily.

The new lawsuit states the 

student experienced “numerous 
violations of her rights” in UNL’s 

reporting 
and 
investigation 

process. Strickman is specifically 
accused of pressuring the student 
to drop her case, making false 
statements about the investigation 
to the student and ignoring 
the student’s questions about 
the investigation, among other 
allegations.

“When Plaintiff went to the 

IEC (Institutional Equity and 
Compliance) office to check on 
the status of her case, Strickman 
made Plaintiff feel like she was the 
harasser rather than the victim,” 
the lawsuit reads. “Strickman 
would speak to Plaintiff in an 
angry tone that made Plaintiff feel 
like she was wasting her time.”

The unnamed plaintiff in the 

Feburary lawsuit was a graduate 
student at UNL from 2014 to 2017. 
She alleges that her unnamed 
faculty adviser, referred to as John 
Roe in the court filings, kissed her 
on the lips in his office without her 

consent. She was 26 years old and 
married at the time of the alleged 
incident; he was over 60. 

After she attempted to limit 

interactions with him after the 
incident, she alleges he started a 
“retaliation campaign” against 
her to limit her interactions with 
other instructors, increase her 
financial dependence on him 
and humiliate her in front of her 
colleagues. 

The alleged romantic advances 

also escalated from there, the 
lawsuit states.

In what the lawsuit describes as 

the “worst” instance of retaliation, 
the professor allegedly demoted 
the student from first to second 
author on a research paper without 
giving her prior notice, a decision 
which compromised her ability to 
fulfill degree requirements.

During 
the 
investigation, 

which took place during the 
summer of 2016, the plaintiff’s 

primary points of contact were 
Strickman 
and 
fellow 
UNL 

IEC 
employee 
Susan 
Foster, 

according to a letter to the 
student mentioned in the lawsuit 
that was signed by Strickman. 
Following the conclusion of the 
investigation in August 2016, a 
no-contact directive was put in 
place between the student and 
professor. 

The 
student 
alleges 
the 

harassment from the professor 
did not stop, leading her to file 
a second report with IEC in 
October 2016. According to the 
lawsuit, no investigation was 
opened into the second complaint. 
This led the student to transfer to 

another university and begin her 
program again there.

“Plaintiff had been hopeful 

that UNL would protect her from 
Roe’s harassment and retaliation, 
but her faith in the school had 
been completely broken,” the 
lawsuit reads.

In an email to The Daily March 

1, Abdnour, one of the Title IX 
lawyers on the case, wrote that 
the new lawsuit has much in 
common with the July 2020 one, 
as 
both 
reveal 
discrepancies 

between UNL’s policies and their 
practices. 

JULIANNA MORANO

Daily Staff Reporter

 ALEC COHEN/Daily

A lawsuit was filed against Tamiko Strickman, associate vice president of the University 
of Michigan’s Office of Institutional Equity, Sunday evening.

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com
See SCHLISSEL, Page 3

CALDER LEWIS,

 JARED DOUGALL & 

CHRISTIAN JULIANO

Daily News Editor & 
Daily Staff Reporters