4.2% of men experience nonconsen-
sual sexual touching on campus; 34.3% 
of undergraduate women remain most 
at risk for experiencing nonconsen-
sual touching and penetration on cam-
pus; 17% of undergraduates, 26.4% of 
women, experience unwanted kissing 
and sexual touching prior to coming to 
the University; 6.7% of undergraduates, 

10.6% of women, experience unwanted 
penetration or oral sex prior to coming 
to the University. 

5

Thursday, May 20, 2021

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Beyond empty promises: The pursuit of systemic change to the University’s 

toxic environment of gender-based violence

Beyond empty promises: Why I signed onto the class 

action lawsuit against U-M for students affected

OPINION

CECIEL ZHONG | SOPHOMORE DUAL-DEGREE 

JOSIE GRAHAM | JUNIOR

Content Warning: This article dis-

cusses gender-based violence, which 
includes but is not limited to sexual vio-
lence.
E 

ngaging in student activism 
was not part of my plan in 2019, 
but like many others, to stay 

calm was to ignore the horror and 
anger caused by the new interim sexu-
al assault and misconduct policy. This 
policy, among other things, allowed 
direct cross-examination for survi-
vors who came forward. Despite the 
outcry, the University of Michigan did 
not change its procedure, insisting to 
wait for former Secretary of Education 
Betsy Devos’s new regulations to come 
out. The University’s position drifted 
with the unstable political climate and 
in turn, allowed survivors of sexual 
violence to be re-traumatized through 
this interim policy.

Administrators claim that they 

“take allegations of sexual miscon-
duct very seriously.” The words seem 

clear: “Sexual misconduct will not be 
tolerated in the University of Michi-
gan community.” However, in the past 
two years, it is hard to count the times 
when high-profile cases on campus 
arose with one hand. The University 
administration has made its stance 
well known through words and state-
ments, but how has institutional 
change truly been implemented so far? 

To look at that we need to under-

stand that sexual assault is about power 
and control. The University, as an insti-
tution, exerts institutional power that 
ostracises survivors through inad-
equate report addressments, resulting 
in institutional betrayal. This pattern 
has been exemplified through high-
profile cases at the University such 
as Robert Anderson, Martin Philbert, 
and David Daniels, to name a few. 
Institutional betrayal created a mass of 
known perpetrators spreading across 
schools and departments, including 
SMTD, EECS, Michigan Athletics, 

Michigan Medicine, and OIE itself, a 
place that everyone was told to go to if 
an incident occurs. Meanwhile, cam-
pus organizers witnessed an apparent 
disconnect between the administra-
tors and the people whom the policy 
directly impacted. What was consis-
tent among the headlines is that the 
University knows of perpetrators at 
the institution, but continues failing 
to act promptly and comprehensively, 
both in retrospect and in foresight.

To “act” would be a series of 

steps toward justice, which includes 
both individually and systemically 
addressing where the failure occurred, 
rethinking and transforming the 
institutional structures and power 
relations that enabled harm. In the 
class-action lawsuit against former 
University of Michigan athletic doctor 
Robert Anderson, that abuse occurred 
years ago is not an excuse for fractional 
justice and no change. 

Appropriate actions extend beyond 

providing verbal support to adopting 
institutional courage, which means 
cherishing the whistleblower, creating 
a culture of transparency, and using 
institutional power to protect commu-
nity members, not assaulters. Despite 
the long-standing myths of false 
reports ruining one’s life, “the alleged” 
seldom face expulsion from the Uni-
versity, as reflected by OIE’s Annual 
Report in 2016, 2017, and 2018. In the 
workplace, three out of four sexual 
misconduct cases go unreported, and 
over 60% of people who committed 
sexual assault are repeated offenders. 
This reality is played out in Philbert’s 
rise in ranks despite years of rumors 
and Anderson’s decades of abuse, 
which harmed hundreds of students.

Statistics and numbers numb me, 

as do all of the released “official state-
ments.” Actions, not words, are the 
true criterion of our community values. 
When protecting survivors is solely 
treated as a checkbox to maintain fed-

eral funding and reputation, the cam-
pus climate will not improve. When 
the Sixth Circuit Court discouraged 
personal confrontation — recom-
mending agents, not students them-
selves to conduct cross-examination 
— but the University’s interim policy 
still maintained to not provide rep-
resentatives for students who need 
them, we ask, how could we count on 
the procedure to be trauma-informed? 
When a professor with pending sexual 
misconduct lawsuits was appointed 
to teach a large course in the upcom-
ing semester without considering the 
community, we ask what the Univer-
sity has learned from the WilmerHale 
report that was released not long ago? 

Ceciel Zhong is a sophomore dual-degree 

student in the School of Information and the 

College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. 

She can be reached at xizhong@umich.edu.

 

 Read more at michigandaily.com

 Read more at michigandaily.com

AMBIKA TRIPATHI | OPINION CARTOONIST 
CAN BE REACHED AT AMBIKAT@UMICH.EDU.

Content Warning: This article dis-

cusses gender-based violence. Gender-
based violence “ … refers to harmful 
acts directed at an individual based 
on their gender. It is rooted in gender 
inequality, the abuse of power and 
harmful norms.”
I

write this article in honor of the 
survivors of gender-based violence 
filing the class-action lawsuit 

against the University of Michigan for 
allowing Robert E. Anderson former U 
of M athletic doctor’s decades of abuse 
to continue unabated and for all other 
survivors of gender-based violence. 
This story belongs to them and to all 
of the survivors who go unheard and 
continue to be failed by oppressive 
systems, which perpetuate violence 
and inequity against marginalized 
groups, on this campus, in this country 
and across the globe.

I am no expert; I do not hold all 

the answers to solve this complex, 
nuanced issue. I write this, first and 
foremost, to call for justice for survi-
vors, a form of justice defined solely 
by them and what they need to heal, 
varying on a case-to-case basis. They 
deserve better. 

To all survivors, thank you for pro-

tecting all of us in filing this suit. The 
University knew of its abuse and failed 

all of you and the rest of our commu-
nity by enabling it. If the University 
cares about its students, it would take 
responsibility for this unimaginable 
injury and validate these survivors. 

Second, I write this as a call to 

myself and all of us to continue to reck-
on with the reality of gender-based 
violence, a reality we construct and 
maintain and to start to think of and 
pursue solutions to deconstruct it. I 
hope this op-ed encourages further 
debate, reflection and action when it 
comes to addressing and dismantling 
the oppressive systems that create 
gender-based violence.

* * *

Zoom In. 
Case I: Former U-M provost Martin 

Philbert sexually harassed multiple 
people over two decades throughout 
his entire career at the University, ris-
ing in ranks from professor to Dean 
to Provost, the head of the office that 
oversees cases of gender-based vio-
lence. University officials, including 
President Mark Schlissel, knew of the 
rumors, now proven true, circulating 
about Philbert’s misconduct and failed 
to launch investigations until the 2018-
2019 school year. 

Case II: More than 150 survivors 

have come forward in filing indi-

vidual lawsuits and a class-action 
lawsuit against the University in 
response to the University’s handling 
of sexual abuse of students by former 
athletic doctor Robert E. Anderson 
dating back to the 1960s. The Uni-
versity received over 460 complaints 
against Anderson, starting this Feb-
ruary. Worst of all, former football 
coach Bo Schembechler and former 
athletic director Don Canham knew 
about Anderson’s actions and failed 
to do anything in response at the time. 
Anderson worked until his retirement 
in 2003, despite being demoted for his 
behavior in 1979. 

Case III: The Michigan Daily 

uncovered 40 years of harassment and 
sexual misconduct allegations against 
SMTD faculty Stephen Shipps. 

Case IV: Employees at Clinc, an AI 

start-up, made allegations of sexual 
misconduct against Clinc’s CEO and 
EECS professor Jason Mars; some fac-
ulty wrote a statement calling for Mars 
to take a leave of absence. He taught an 
undergraduate course during the Win-
ter 2021 semester. 

Case V: In 2019, the University 

conducted a survey on sexual miscon-
duct. Critical results include: 12.4% of 
women and 1.7% of men experience 
rape on campus; 20.4% of women and 

Josie Graham is a junior in the College of 

Literature, Science, and the Arts and can be 

reached at josiekg@umich.edu. 

